Mother's Day

I spent Mother's Day, as I do every year of late, thinking about two women I have never met: Linda is around 43 years old and Naomi is about 28 (names are changed). I have no idea what either of these two ladies looks like or exactly where either of them might be found. I have never had a conversation with either; we've never exchanged letters or emails. I wonder about them often, but neither of them have any knowledge of me.

Yesterday I received an email from a former seminary student of mine who told me his 29-year-old wife considers the past twelve months her hardest yet. Why?