My mother learned to read so she could text me herself

Dear Delyara, My mother left school at eight and relied on my siblings to read messages and write replies. After I moved abroad, our conversations depended on whoever was nearby to help her use the phone. Two years ago, she joined an adult-literacy class without telling me. She practiced letters on grocery cartons and learned phone commands from my niece. This morning, I received a message directly from her: “Good morning, my child. I made this myself.” The spelling was imperfect. I read it aloud at work and cried beside the copy machine. Later, she sent a photograph of her notebook. My name filled an entire page, written again and again in blue ink. I called her, and she refused help answering the video call. It took three attempts. When her face appeared, she said she was tired of other people standing between a mother and her own words. I had always thought I moved away because I was the brave one. At sixty-seven, she learned to read so distance would no longer require a translator.