05/11/2026
🤱🏽 Mother’s Day can be beautiful, but it can also be incredibly heavy for those of us navigating it without our mothers here.
This will be my 24th Mother’s Day without mine. 💔
🌱 One thing grief has taught me is that people don’t simply disappear because they die. They continue showing up in strange, quiet, and beautiful ways: in the way we comfort others, in our mannerisms, in our strength, in our softness, in the meals we make, in the things we fear, in the things we overcome, and sometimes just in the silence we carry.
🦋 Like a caterpillar who changes into a butterfly, loss changes shape over the years, but it never fully leaves you. Some years it feels sharp.... Some years it feels distant.... Some years it quietly sits beside you all day without saying a word... 😶
🙏🏽 Forever grateful in the short time we shared together she modeled being fearless and instilled a relentless belief in me that I can do anything and be any one I choose unapologetically. During a time many women stayed small she never held back from speaking her mind or standing up for others, she was the first to get a college degree, served our country as an officer in the USA Air Force 🇺🇸, traveled the world, became a mother, introduced me to the arts, and gave me every experience she could in this world. I often wonder if you'd be proud of me, and I try a little more each day hoping to. 🙂
✨ Sending love and light to anyone spending Mother’s Day carrying grief, complicated feelings, absence, longing, or memories instead of flowers and brunch reservations. 💐💝
You are not alone in that experience. 🤍
