Diane Falcone

My name is Diane Falcone.

I live in Yonkers, New York.

Something I heard from my mom a lot when I was growing up was, God punishes you.

And you might wonder, why would your mom say that to you?

For some context, my mom was a devout Catholic.

She tried to become a nun twice in her life.

My parents were very active in their parish.

We did church on Sundays, and I even wore that little doily on my head back when women had to wear that to church on Sundays.

So God in my household was a big deal.

So if someone were to have a minor injury, like they would bump their head or stub their toe or pinch a finger, instead of getting a response from my mom like, oh, are you okay?

I would get, God punishes you.

which for me was horrifying, first of all, because I'm a tiny child.

I don't know what I did to piss off God.

But I feel like it was my mom's way of saying, well, you must have done something to deserve that.

I didn't see it, so God punishes you.