July 28, 2025 • 13 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Star Mother by Robert F. Young, a touching story of
the most enduring love in all eternity. That night, her
son was the first star. She stood motionless in the garden,
one hand pressed against her heart, watching him rise above
(00:22):
the fields where he had played as a boy, where
he had worked as a young man, And she wondered
whether he was thinking of those fields now, whether he
was thinking of her, standing alone in the april night,
with her memories, whether he was thinking of the veranded
house behind her, with its empty rooms, in silent halls
(00:45):
that once upon a time had been his birthplace. Higher
still and higher he rose in the southern sky, and then,
when he had reached his zenith, he dropped swiftly down
past the dark edge of the earth and disappeared from sight.
A boy grown up too soon, riding round and round
(01:09):
the world on a celestial carousel, encased in an air
tight metal capsule, in an air tight metal chariot. Why
don't they leave the stars alone, she thought, Why don't
they leave the stars to God? The General's second telegram
(01:30):
came early the next morning, Explorer twelve doing splendidly, expect
to bring your sun down some time tomorrow. She went
about her work as usual, collecting the eggs and allocating
them in their cardboard boxes, then setting off in the
station wagon on her Tuesday morning run. She had expected
(01:52):
a deluge of questions from her customers. She was not disappointed.
Is Terry really way up there all alone, Martha? Aren't
you scared? Martha? I do hope they can get him
back down, all right, Martha, She supposed. It must have
given them quite a turn to have their egg woman
change into a star mother overnight. She hadn't expected the
(02:16):
TV interview, though, and she would would have avoided if
it had been politely possible. But what could she do
when the line of cars and trucks pulled into the
drive and the technicians got out and started setting up
their equipment in the back yard. What could she say
when the suave young man came up to her and said,
(02:37):
we want you to know that we're all very proud
of your boy up there, ma'am, and we hope you'll
do us the honor of answering a few questions. Most
of the questions concerned Terry, as was fitting from the
way the suave young man asked them, though she got
the impression that he was trying to prove that her
son was just like any other average American boy, and
(03:00):
such just didn't happen to be the case. But whenever
she opened her mouth to mention, say how he had
used to study till all hours of the night, or
how difficult it had been for him to make friends
because of his shyness, or the fact that he had
never gone out for football, Whenever she started to mention
any of these things, the suave young man was in
(03:23):
great haste to interrupt her and to twist her words
by requestioning into a different meaning. Altogether till Terry's behavior
pattern seemed to coincide with the behavior pattern which the
suave young man apparently considered the norm, but which, if followed,
Martha was sure would produce not young men bent on
(03:45):
exploring space, but young men bent on exploring trivia. A
few of the questions concerned herself. Was Terry her only child? Yes?
What had happened to her husband he was killed in
the Korean War? What did she think of the new
law granting star mother's top priority on any and all
(04:07):
information relating to their sons. I think it's a fine law.
It's too bad they couldn't have shown similar humanity toward
the war mothers of World War II. It was late
in the afternoon by the time the t V crew
got everything repacked into their cars and trucks and made
their departure. Martha fixed herself a light supper, then donned
(04:30):
an old swayed jacket of Terry's and went out into
the garden to wait for the sun to go down.
According to the time table the General had outlined in
his first telegram, Terry's first Tuesday night passage wasn't due
to occur until nine o five, but it seemed only
right that she should be outside when the stars started
(04:51):
to come out. Presently they did, and she watched them
wink on one by one in the deepening darkness of
the sky. She'd never been much of a one for
the stars most of her life. She'd been much too
busy on Earth to bother with things celestial. She could
remember when she was much younger and Bill was courting her,
(05:12):
looking up at the moon sometimes and once in a
while when a star fell, making a wish. But this
was different. It was different because now she had a
personal interest in the sky, a new affinity with its
myriad inhabitants, and how bright they became when you kept
looking at them. They seemed to come alive, almost pulsing
(05:35):
brilliantly down out of the blackness of the night. And
they were different colors too, she noticed with a start
some of them were blue, and some were red. Others
were yellow, green, orange. It grew cold in the april garden,
and she could see her breath. There was a strange crispness,
(05:56):
a strange clarity about the night that she had never
known before. She glanced at her watch, was astonished to
see that the hands indicated two minutes after nine. Where
had the time gone? Tremulously? She faced the southern horizon
and saw her terry appear in his shining chariot, riding
(06:18):
up the star pebbled path of his orbit, a star
in his own right, dropping swiftly now down, down, and
out of sight beyond the dark, wheeling mass of the earth.
She took a deep, proud breath, realized that she was
wildly waving her hand, and let it fall slowly to
(06:39):
her side. Make a wish, she thought, like a little girl,
and she wished him pleasant dreams and a safe return,
and wrapped the wish in all her love and cast
it starward some time tomorrow the general's telegram had said
that meant some time to day. She rose with the
(07:01):
sun and fed the chickens, fixed and ate her breakfast,
collected the eggs and put them in their cardboard boxes,
then started out on her Wednesday morning. Run my land, Martha.
I don't see how you stand it with him way
up there. Doesn't it get on your nerves? Yes, yes
it does, Martha. When are they bringing him back down
(07:24):
to day to day? It must be wonderful being a star, mother, Martha. Yes,
it is in a way wonderful and terrible. If only
he can last it out for a few more hours,
she thought, If only they can bring him down safe
and sound, then the vigil will be over and some
(07:47):
other mother can take over the awesome responsibility of having
a son become a star. If only the General's third
telegram arrived that afternoon. Regret to inform you that meteorite
impact on satellite hull severely damaged capsule detachment mechanism, making
(08:08):
ejection impossible. Will make every effort to find another means
of accomplishing your son's return. Terry, see the little boy
playing beneath the maple tree, moving his tiny cars up
and down the tiny streets of his Makepley village. The
little boy, his fuzz of hair gold in the sunlight,
(08:32):
his cherub cheeks pink in the summer wind. Terry up
the lane. The blue denimed young man walks, swinging his
thin tanned arms, his long legs, making near grown up
strides over the sun seared grass, The sky blue and
bright behind him, the song of Secata rising and falling
(08:55):
in the hazy September air. Terry probably won't get a
chance to write you again before take off. But don't worry, Ma.
The Explorer twelve is the greatest bird they ever built.
Nothing short of a direct meteorite hit can hurt it,
and the odds are a million to one. Why don't
(09:17):
they leave the stars alone? Why don't they leave the
stars to God? The afternoon shadows lengthened on the lawn,
and the sun grew red and swollen over the western hills.
Martha fixed supper, tried to eat and couldn't. After a while,
when the light began to fade, she slipped into Terry's
(09:40):
jacket and went outside. Slowly, the sky darkened and the
stars began to appear at length. Her star appeared, but
its swift passage blurred before her eyes. Tires crunched on
the gravel. Then, and head lights woke Marush the darkness
(10:00):
from the drive. A car door slammed. Martha did not move.
Please God, she thought, let it be terry, even though
she knew that it couldn't possibly be terry. Footsteps sounded
behind her, paused, someone coughed softly. She turned. Then good evening, ma'am.
(10:26):
She saw the circlet of stars on the gray epaulet.
She saw the stern, handsome face. She saw the dark,
tired eyes, and she knew even before he spoke again,
she knew the same meteorite that damaged the ejection mechanism
man it penetrated the capsule too. We didn't find out
(10:51):
till just a while ago, But there was nothing we
could have done anyway. Are you all right, ma'am? Yeah,
I'm all right. I wanted to express my regrets personally.
I know how you must feel. It's all right. We will,
of course make every effort to bring back his remains
(11:14):
so that he can have a fitting burial on earth. No,
she said, I beg your pardon, ma'am. She raised her
eyes to the patch of sky where her sun had
passed in his shining metal sarcophagus. Sirius blossomed there, blue,
white and beautiful. She raised her eyes still higher and
(11:38):
beheld the vast partera of Orion, with its central motif
of vivid forget me nots, its far flung blooms of
bethel Goose, and rigel of Bellatrix and Saif. And higher
yet and there flamed the exquisite flower beds of Taurus
and Gemini. There ru and the riotous wealth of the Crab.
(12:02):
There lay the pulsing petals of the Pliades, And down
the elliptic garden path, wafted by a stellar breeze, drifted
the ochre rows of Mars. No, she said again. The
General had raised his eyes too. Now slowly he lowered them.
(12:24):
I think I understand, ma'am, and I'm glad that's the
way you want it. Stars are beautiful tonight, Aren't they
more beautiful than they've ever been? She said. After the
general had gone, she looked up once more at the
vast and variegated garden of the sky where her son
(12:46):
lay buried. Then she turned and walked slowly back to
the memoried house. The end of Star Mother by Robert F.
You
Star Mother by Robert F. Young, a touching story of
the most enduring love in all eternity. That night, her
son was the first star. She stood motionless in the garden,
one hand pressed against her heart, watching him rise above
(00:22):
the fields where he had played as a boy, where
he had worked as a young man, And she wondered
whether he was thinking of those fields now, whether he
was thinking of her, standing alone in the april night,
with her memories, whether he was thinking of the veranded
house behind her, with its empty rooms, in silent halls
(00:45):
that once upon a time had been his birthplace. Higher
still and higher he rose in the southern sky, and then,
when he had reached his zenith, he dropped swiftly down
past the dark edge of the earth and disappeared from sight.
A boy grown up too soon, riding round and round
(01:09):
the world on a celestial carousel, encased in an air
tight metal capsule, in an air tight metal chariot. Why
don't they leave the stars alone, she thought, Why don't
they leave the stars to God? The General's second telegram
(01:30):
came early the next morning, Explorer twelve doing splendidly, expect
to bring your sun down some time tomorrow. She went
about her work as usual, collecting the eggs and allocating
them in their cardboard boxes, then setting off in the
station wagon on her Tuesday morning run. She had expected
(01:52):
a deluge of questions from her customers. She was not disappointed.
Is Terry really way up there all alone, Martha? Aren't
you scared? Martha? I do hope they can get him
back down, all right, Martha, She supposed. It must have
given them quite a turn to have their egg woman
change into a star mother overnight. She hadn't expected the
(02:16):
TV interview, though, and she would would have avoided if
it had been politely possible. But what could she do
when the line of cars and trucks pulled into the
drive and the technicians got out and started setting up
their equipment in the back yard. What could she say
when the suave young man came up to her and said,
(02:37):
we want you to know that we're all very proud
of your boy up there, ma'am, and we hope you'll
do us the honor of answering a few questions. Most
of the questions concerned Terry, as was fitting from the
way the suave young man asked them, though she got
the impression that he was trying to prove that her
son was just like any other average American boy, and
(03:00):
such just didn't happen to be the case. But whenever
she opened her mouth to mention, say how he had
used to study till all hours of the night, or
how difficult it had been for him to make friends
because of his shyness, or the fact that he had
never gone out for football, Whenever she started to mention
any of these things, the suave young man was in
(03:23):
great haste to interrupt her and to twist her words
by requestioning into a different meaning. Altogether till Terry's behavior
pattern seemed to coincide with the behavior pattern which the
suave young man apparently considered the norm, but which, if followed,
Martha was sure would produce not young men bent on
(03:45):
exploring space, but young men bent on exploring trivia. A
few of the questions concerned herself. Was Terry her only child? Yes?
What had happened to her husband he was killed in
the Korean War? What did she think of the new
law granting star mother's top priority on any and all
(04:07):
information relating to their sons. I think it's a fine law.
It's too bad they couldn't have shown similar humanity toward
the war mothers of World War II. It was late
in the afternoon by the time the t V crew
got everything repacked into their cars and trucks and made
their departure. Martha fixed herself a light supper, then donned
(04:30):
an old swayed jacket of Terry's and went out into
the garden to wait for the sun to go down.
According to the time table the General had outlined in
his first telegram, Terry's first Tuesday night passage wasn't due
to occur until nine o five, but it seemed only
right that she should be outside when the stars started
(04:51):
to come out. Presently they did, and she watched them
wink on one by one in the deepening darkness of
the sky. She'd never been much of a one for
the stars most of her life. She'd been much too
busy on Earth to bother with things celestial. She could
remember when she was much younger and Bill was courting her,
(05:12):
looking up at the moon sometimes and once in a
while when a star fell, making a wish. But this
was different. It was different because now she had a
personal interest in the sky, a new affinity with its
myriad inhabitants, and how bright they became when you kept
looking at them. They seemed to come alive, almost pulsing
(05:35):
brilliantly down out of the blackness of the night. And
they were different colors too, she noticed with a start
some of them were blue, and some were red. Others
were yellow, green, orange. It grew cold in the april garden,
and she could see her breath. There was a strange crispness,
(05:56):
a strange clarity about the night that she had never
known before. She glanced at her watch, was astonished to
see that the hands indicated two minutes after nine. Where
had the time gone? Tremulously? She faced the southern horizon
and saw her terry appear in his shining chariot, riding
(06:18):
up the star pebbled path of his orbit, a star
in his own right, dropping swiftly now down, down, and
out of sight beyond the dark, wheeling mass of the earth.
She took a deep, proud breath, realized that she was
wildly waving her hand, and let it fall slowly to
(06:39):
her side. Make a wish, she thought, like a little girl,
and she wished him pleasant dreams and a safe return,
and wrapped the wish in all her love and cast
it starward some time tomorrow the general's telegram had said
that meant some time to day. She rose with the
(07:01):
sun and fed the chickens, fixed and ate her breakfast,
collected the eggs and put them in their cardboard boxes,
then started out on her Wednesday morning. Run my land, Martha.
I don't see how you stand it with him way
up there. Doesn't it get on your nerves? Yes, yes
it does, Martha. When are they bringing him back down
(07:24):
to day to day? It must be wonderful being a star, mother, Martha. Yes,
it is in a way wonderful and terrible. If only
he can last it out for a few more hours,
she thought, If only they can bring him down safe
and sound, then the vigil will be over and some
(07:47):
other mother can take over the awesome responsibility of having
a son become a star. If only the General's third
telegram arrived that afternoon. Regret to inform you that meteorite
impact on satellite hull severely damaged capsule detachment mechanism, making
(08:08):
ejection impossible. Will make every effort to find another means
of accomplishing your son's return. Terry, see the little boy
playing beneath the maple tree, moving his tiny cars up
and down the tiny streets of his Makepley village. The
little boy, his fuzz of hair gold in the sunlight,
(08:32):
his cherub cheeks pink in the summer wind. Terry up
the lane. The blue denimed young man walks, swinging his
thin tanned arms, his long legs, making near grown up
strides over the sun seared grass, The sky blue and
bright behind him, the song of Secata rising and falling
(08:55):
in the hazy September air. Terry probably won't get a
chance to write you again before take off. But don't worry, Ma.
The Explorer twelve is the greatest bird they ever built.
Nothing short of a direct meteorite hit can hurt it,
and the odds are a million to one. Why don't
(09:17):
they leave the stars alone? Why don't they leave the
stars to God? The afternoon shadows lengthened on the lawn,
and the sun grew red and swollen over the western hills.
Martha fixed supper, tried to eat and couldn't. After a while,
when the light began to fade, she slipped into Terry's
(09:40):
jacket and went outside. Slowly, the sky darkened and the
stars began to appear at length. Her star appeared, but
its swift passage blurred before her eyes. Tires crunched on
the gravel. Then, and head lights woke Marush the darkness
(10:00):
from the drive. A car door slammed. Martha did not move.
Please God, she thought, let it be terry, even though
she knew that it couldn't possibly be terry. Footsteps sounded
behind her, paused, someone coughed softly. She turned. Then good evening, ma'am.
(10:26):
She saw the circlet of stars on the gray epaulet.
She saw the stern, handsome face. She saw the dark,
tired eyes, and she knew even before he spoke again,
she knew the same meteorite that damaged the ejection mechanism
man it penetrated the capsule too. We didn't find out
(10:51):
till just a while ago, But there was nothing we
could have done anyway. Are you all right, ma'am? Yeah,
I'm all right. I wanted to express my regrets personally.
I know how you must feel. It's all right. We will,
of course make every effort to bring back his remains
(11:14):
so that he can have a fitting burial on earth. No,
she said, I beg your pardon, ma'am. She raised her
eyes to the patch of sky where her sun had
passed in his shining metal sarcophagus. Sirius blossomed there, blue,
white and beautiful. She raised her eyes still higher and
(11:38):
beheld the vast partera of Orion, with its central motif
of vivid forget me nots, its far flung blooms of
bethel Goose, and rigel of Bellatrix and Saif. And higher
yet and there flamed the exquisite flower beds of Taurus
and Gemini. There ru and the riotous wealth of the Crab.
(12:02):
There lay the pulsing petals of the Pliades, And down
the elliptic garden path, wafted by a stellar breeze, drifted
the ochre rows of Mars. No, she said again. The
General had raised his eyes too. Now slowly he lowered them.
(12:24):
I think I understand, ma'am, and I'm glad that's the
way you want it. Stars are beautiful tonight, Aren't they
more beautiful than they've ever been? She said. After the
general had gone, she looked up once more at the
vast and variegated garden of the sky where her son
(12:46):
lay buried. Then she turned and walked slowly back to
the memoried house. The end of Star Mother by Robert F.
You
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