Grieving Our Mothers
A conversation on the death of our mothers
Since I was very young, I carried anticipatory grief over my parents dying. Somehow over the years that grief shifted, bringing me into a place where I no longer feared death. That feeling has stayed with me, and feels like an invisible presence in my life.
In the years preceding my mother’s death, even before her diagnoses of cancer, I went through so much anticipatory grief.
On reflection it feels like that anticipatory grief was also working through me, doing its job, working below the surface in ways I couldn’t quite see at the time.
Now, on the other side of her death, I don’t have the same level of grief I expected, almost as if that anticipatory grief had its purpose.
I’ve always wanted to hear other women’s stories of losing their mothers. But living in a death-phobic culture, these conversations rarely seem to happen out in the open.
Podcast interview with Meghan Donn - Grieving, Keening Our Mothers
This is why I readily accepted an invitation to speak with author Meghan Donn, where we talk about the loss of our mothers and their dying journeys.
Click on the above image to listen to our conversation, hosted on her website
Or you can listen to the podcast at the following links:
October 23 1993 sometimes seems like yesterday. How many times I hear my mother's words coming from my moouth or running around in my head.
A lovely tender sharing of experiences. I'm coming to the opinion that those we have loved leave us with a little of the aspect of them that we most appreciated and connected with, almost like an imprint of those qualities enters our being as they leave their physical body behind and that is part of their legacy.