In The Gloaming

I've been thinking about a short story I read a while back called "In the Gloaming".
It was the story about a mothers last few days spent with her son who was dying of AIDS. It was an amazing, heart wrenching story. One that has haunted me for years.

I looked for my copy of this story over the weekend & can't find it. I wanted to reread it as it was on my mind. It was in a bigger book of short stories, "The Best Short Stories of 1994" that I had bought for my grandma as a gift one year. When she passed away I knew I wanted to have that book. I'm sure my grandma probably skipped that particular story as it wouldn't have been a subject she would have liked. Dealing with AIDS would have been something you wouldn't talk about and like so many people of her generation, was just something they didn't understand.

Christopher Reeve made an HBO movie out of this back in the mid 90's. Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, David Strathairn, Whoopie Goldberg & Robert Shawn Leanard were all in it. I loved the movie adaptation as well. It was well acted and moving. I highly recommend seeing it but I warn you now, have tissue handy.

I use to read a lot of short stories. I'm not sure when I quit or why. After reflecting on this story over the last few days though I've decided it's time to start reading them again. In doing a little research for this post I noticed that this story made it into John Updikes "Best Short Stories of the Century", I think that will be a good place for me to start.

Do you have a favorite short story?

In the Gloaming 5 out of 5 stars.