by Kate Willoughby Hall, raving fan 
The Big C recently launched on Showtime, and suddenly I find that I’m riveted to the t.v. each Sunday night as it airs. Laura Linney (fabulous) is a suburban mom of a teenager, a teacher, and is having marital problems. Oh, and she was recently diagnosed with stage-4 cancer, and the prognosis is dark. And no one close to her has any idea.
Enter her second childhood. We get to watch as this previously-uptight adult woman begins to reach outside of herself to do the things she’s always wanted to do: build a swimming pool in her backyard, approach the grouchy neighbor across the street, challenge the overweight girl at her school to lose weight and pay her $100 for every pound lost. She scolds the young girl, who starred in Precious: “You can either be fat and jolly or skinny and bitchy.” The brutal honesty of her thoughts play out in the most humorous moments.
But it doesn’t end there. In last night’s episode, she experienced her first-ever waxing (you know, the personal kind) and feels a desire to take her underwear off in the middle of her classroom . . . and well I won’t spoil it for anyone who may have DVR’d it, but let’s just say she experiences a freedom she’s never felt before.
Watching her explode into the woman she’s always wanted to be is exhilarating. She is determined to parent her son perfectly in as short amount of time as humanly possible “I’m gonna raise you so hard your head’s gonna spin!” As a mother it’s painful to witness her desperation to crunch as many mother-and-son tender moments in the short time that remains; meanwhile her son would rather watch porn in his bedroom.
It’s been a catalyst for me wondering what I’d leave my children with if I only had months to live. Would we focus on playing together? Would I instill the virtues of hard work? Is what we’re doing now all sinking in?
In the short time that remains, what would you leave your children with if Laura Linney’s character were you?
