A Mother's Prayer

By: Rand, Steve

Published by Onion River Press, 2026-04-07

A Mother's Prayer is a striking memoir about an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things, persisting for the sake of her family, mainly her three children. Steve's mother, Anne, asserted her newfound womanhood while confronting a deadly disease. She battled cancer for thirteen years while raising three children and working three low-wage jobs. During the last four years of her life, she was a single mother after her husband fled New York to live in California with another woman.

Anne's family begged her to return to Vermont. She refused, believing a return home represented failure if she could not overcome a deadly disease on her own while raising three children.

In her weakest moments, as her illness persisted, Anne mourned the loss of her beauty and the touch of a lover, claiming, "No man wants this body." In her bravest moments, she wore bikinis at public swimming pools, scars exposed, her body a reminder that we all suffer.