for losing a Mother is perhaps hardest of all, absent the loss of a spouse.

I find myself at an age where I’ve begun to bury many family and friends. And whether it be age or debility, the culling of remembrances can be sparse at times, and sadly, I know finding those memories may become ever more difficult. Faces and voices fade, memory clouds over. So I find it useful to recall that the departed are best remembered if thought of in a context. In other words, think not of them but of specific incidents and occasions you shared with them, and in the memory of those seemingly mundane acts the life and love of those absent and missed will spring to your mind unbidden and remain with you untarnished by time’s passing.

For time will pass. It is our great salve, our constant comfort. And though it seems, in the presence of death, that night enfolds our lives, it is well to remember the poet Tagore, who observed that death does not extinguish the light; it only puts out the lamp because the dawn has come.

In this light of your new day, remembrances of past wonders meld into reflections of the inevitable. But it needn’t be a time for sorrow. We can take heart and find the strength to persevere, for a great truth of our lives is the enduring quality of love. Distance can not diminish it, nor death defeat it. And in the face of every loss, there remains the comfort that if there is any substitute for love, it is memory.

...you do learn to live with it.

I'm a short timer in this world and I morbidly remind my sons, without appeal to any mysticism, that the place I'll live on is in them.

To the extent they bring honor to themselves they will honor me when my breath has ended. If you so live, you may come to believe that the joy of dying is that you cannot do it unless you have lived.

Live on and in so doing, bring your mother with you and honor her by living a full and rich life.

I wish you peace.

sure your mother is having a very bon voyage....

Peace to you and yours.

as we must, when we've lost our parents.

To remember my mom, I make some of the many recipes she showed me, and I imagine her standing nearby, complimenting what I'm doing. She was never critical of me helping in the kitchen. Feeding a large family, I guess she was just grateful for any help.

Thank you for YOUR comforting words, littlemissmartypants.

-FTC

It's been over 30 years since I lost my mother to cancer. And yet I think of her almost every day. The pain of her loss has lessened over the years but I still miss her and think of her.

Grieving is a personal journey. Don't let anyone give you a timetable, take all the time you need.
May you be comforted in the sweet memories of your Mom from happier times.