tip: don’t do heavy interviews when you’re feeling hormonal

lately, i’ve been fortunate enough to have writing assignments drop into my lap – a wonderful, glorious thing for any writer. one of those gigs involved interviewing a well-known singer and his mom about her battle with breast cancer and its affect on her son’s life at the height of his career. (for all the details, pick up the october issue of Canadian Living magazine.)

so, i interviewed the son yesterday, and it was lovely. he was thoughtful and talkative, and we chatted in a big Elvis-themed lounge at his record label’s offices. i was apprehensive in advance because of the subject matter we’d be tackling – it’s one thing to interview a celebrity about her new movie or his latest fitness regime, but quite another when you have to find out what it was like to have a parent diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease. i mean, what if he started to cry?? what if i started to cry?? i’m a huge sap and will cry at the drop of a hat, so this was a serious concern, especially given that we’d be chatting in person and i’d be unable to hide behind my telephone receiver. thankfully, neither one of us wept...though i did notice him getting slightly choked up a couple of times.

today, however, i interviewed his mother, who became the first interview subject to ever make me cry. we talked on the phone, and she was wonderful, so i was at least able to avoid blubbering right in her face. but as soon as i heard her voice cracking – as she was relating the mother’s day present her son gave her during her treatment – i lost it. (just to clarify: i wasn’t outright weeping or anything, but i was choked up enough to have to struggle to get out my next question.) i blame it on hormones. yeah, that’s the ticket. hormones.

anyway, just so i’m not alone: she told me that her son gave her this book. she’d read it to him as a child, and he gave it to her as an adult.

if you don’t tear up reading that, you’re dead inside. (warning to my friends who do cry easily: get kleenex before reading.) after we’d finished the interview, i looked up the book, read the story, bawled accordingly, and then read the story behind the story, which is just as moving.