Mothers Day
Grief
Both my husband and I have been blessed to have affectionate and caring mothers. Their love
throughout the years has been our rock. We are grown adults and have our own life together with three adult children. It was always a comfort to know they are there for us.
This Mothers Day is significantly different. I went about my routine shopping on the weekend for Mothers day gifts – One for my own mother and one for my husband’s mother. Then, while in the middle of the shopping centre, it dawned on me that I only have one gift to purchase this year. Right in the middle of that shopping centre, the tears began to flow at a most inconvenient time. You see, my husband’s mother entered into eternity on 26th January 2015. We go about our lives in routine only to have reality barge in and the face of grief appears unexpected. This mothers day, she will not be present as the physical, living and vibrant person she was. It will be her memory that we reflect upon and it will be our beliefs that we lean into.
When she passed away that rock that she was to us shook our foundations. There is a void that cannot be filled, but her love has no end. We cling to memories, legacy and hope. And as our monarch Queen Elizabeth said “Grief is the price we pay for love” – grief is a privileged pathway we follow because we chose the journey of love.
This Mothers day Sunday will be a day of family. It will be that bittersweet journey of love mixed with grief. We will celebrate everything that our beautiful Mothers’ are and were. I will be celebrated as a Mother also. We will sit around the table and celebrate who we are as mothers and we will celebrate the wonderful gift of legacy that my mothrr-in-law has left our family. I imagine, there will be laughter and tears and we will reminisce over the amazing meal that we might be indulging in had my mother-in-law been the cook. I didn’t quite master her gift, even though she patiently tried to share these with me. Fortunately, my youngest son has been gifted with these skills and is training to be a chef.
So how will we remember this Mothers Day? We will celebrate with food, with a toast to mothers. We will share the stories both the good times, the hard times and the funny times and we will ponder the legacy she has left and the legacy we will leave.