'Heile heile gänsje': My mother's song

When I was a little girl my mother used to sing this song to me all the time, especially at times when I was upset or I did typical little kid things like fall down or get hurt.

My mother is originally from Austria. She spent decades in this country, working her ass off to chase the American dream, just so she could raise a snarky, Vodka-soaked blogger who forgets to send her Christmas cards and still refuses to brush her hair out of her face. Finally, about ten years ago, my mom said “fuck all this shit” and moved back to Austria to be with my stepdad. She is my ultimate life hero, period. I can tell a million stories about her “take-no-bullshit” attitude or how she managed to raise a feminist daughter as a single mom during the Great Non-Traditional Family Shaming Bullshit of the Reagan 1980’s. But my favorite memory of her is how she loved to sing this song. She used to tell me the lyrics meant “don’t worry about all this right now, eventually everything will be fine. You’ll see.” Whenever I get stressed or worried about anything, she calls me up and sings this to me.