Heart & Soul: A prayer for Ma

The writer's mother and her companion, Dou. (Heart & Soul)

Mothers will go all out to care for their children. 

I am her firstborn and the only one with a skin disorder. Red, itchy, weepy and crusty areas covered parts of my body. There were numerous visits to government clinics to seek treatment, where she was reprimanded and once even rapped on the knuckles by a female doctor for being a “bad” mother. I remembered the tears of shame that welled up in her eyes.