Mothers and Daughters

As May is the month for Mothers Day in North America, I want to pay tribute to the memory of my own beloved mother, who has been dead for over 30 years and, despite the length of time gone by, I still miss her terribly. When she died, I cried for about a year and still grieve for her at certain times. When I became a mother myself, I longed for her company and advice when I felt overwhelmed in my new role. And when I got to know the fine people my own children grew to become, I regretted that they'd never meet one another.

A dear friend of mine who recently became a mother herself lost her own mother just this week and I can't find a way to comfort her in this, one of the worst of all losses. She was fortunate enough to have her mother living next door and able to visit her new granddaughter at any time, which is something I think all grandchildren should be blessed with. I was lucky enough to be able to spend unlimited time as a young child with my own dear grannie and can still see in myself the influences she had.

I'm a grandmother myself now but haven't been able to get to know little Emma because my daughter has estranged herself from me for the past several months. This makes me think of my own mother's importance in my life and how I regret the time I didn't spend with her when I still had the opportunity. I see the pleasure and meaning my sister shares with her grandchildren, despite their long-distance relationship and wonder if I can ever have that with Emma but I'm sure circumstances will change sooner or later and we'll get to know each other better and I'll have the chance to emulate my own dear grannie in my relationship with my granddaughter. Grannie had such a profound influence on her many grandchildren that we all still remember her with great fondness and gratitude. It was she, along with her own daughter, my mother, who taught us what strength of character is, and who passed along their greatest character traits.

Although the estrangement between my daughter and myself has been very painful, I can see that it could possibly be a good thing for us to have this space between us, because I can see, in retrospect, that we may have been too emotionally dependent on one another in the past.

I started out with a tribute to my mother and, as usual, digressed to many other places. I just can't seem to resist the lure of other subjects when they present themselves.