What does Ma Didds’ Stomach Cancer represent?

Ma Didds' stomach cancer symbolizes her sick and corrupted motherhood. Babs said that the children used to see Ma Didds rocking back and forth with her hands on her stomach, "as if she had a baby inside her" (243). Instead of a baby, however, what she had inside her stomach was sickness. Likewise, the way that she mothers the foster children in her care is abusive and sick.