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Our Second Mother’s Day Without Mom

It’s another Mother’s Day without mom.  This year is different.  It is our second Mother’s Day since mom passed away.  I still have her urn sitting on the shelf in my living room. I have liked having her there but now it is time.  Our dog, Woodrow joined her there last December.  I like to think that he is watching over her.

It took me a while to be ready but now I feel it is the time: time to take mom home to be with her family in Chicago.  I have made arrangements with the cemetery for her interment.  Airline tickets are purchased, hotel reservations have been made.  I have the necessary paperwork to take an urn with human remains on an airplane.  Carol is orchestrating the graveside observance.  Jim will be there, …

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Ways To Remember Mother On Mother's Day

Mother’s Day is fast approaching.  This year will be our first without Mom.  I am having a hard time defining myself as an adult without a mother.  It seems unreal, and I don’t know how to behave.  Others have traveled this path before us and have found a way to come to terms with a life without their parents, especially at the holidays which remind us all so much of our loss.

I have decided to honor my mother’s memory this year by planting a Forget-Me-Not in my garden.  Each time I see it, I can think of the mother of my childhood and of the day long ago when she planted the same flower in her garden-a gift from me.  I can think of all the gifts she gave me over the years …

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What Is Mother's Day Without Mother?

It just occurred to me today that this is the first year of my life that I haven’t had a mother on Mother’s Day.  The thought hit me like a ton of bricks and left me feeling dazed and with little enthusiasm for anything related to Mother’s Day this year.  In fact, I’d like to skip right over it but of course, reminders are everywhere.

In the past, Mother’s Day had always been about flowers and Mother.  When I was young the tradition was a trip to the greenhouse to bring home a trunk load of plants in flats.  We always bought Mom a special plant to give to her for Mother’s Day.  I remember one particular year I bought Mom a Forget-Me-Not plant.  Mom tucked it in between some rocks at the front of her …

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