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6 Ways to Honor Mom’s Memory on Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is the special day set aside for us to give back to the woman who gave us so much. But this coming Sunday can be especially tough for the children (of any age) who have lost their mom.
So here are some positive ways to address your grief and incorporate your mom into your celebration on Sunday…
1) Meet up with family. It may be your first impulse to avoid a family gathering, but you’ll likely find support among family members who are missing your mom too. Furthermore, if you have any other mother-figures in your life–a grandmother, an aunt, a neighbor–this is a great opportunity to show them your gratitude.
2) Cook one of your mom’s recipes. Nothing excites all the senses and triggers memory quite like cooking, smelling, and tasting food. Think of the love that your mom put into her signature dishes, and now pass that tradition of love and shared meals with someone else.
3) Volunteer for other mothers. If you look around your community there are plenty of mothers who could use your support. You could spend time at a senior care center and visit with those mothers whose children couldn’t make it in that day.
4) Plant one of your mother’s favorite flowers. It’s mid-May, a perfect time to create a new tradition of planting and caring for something that brought your mom joy. Either plant a perennial that you can look forward to returning each spring, or plant an annual that you can change from year to year. You can even add a stone figure or marker to denote this special plant or garden.
5) Read a book your mother read. It’s a Sunday, perfect time to relax with a good book. If your mom had a favorite book, or movie, or musician, take some time to enjoy the things you know she loved. Music, movies, and literature never die, so this is a chance for you to share something new with your mother even if she’s not there.
6) Take a walk around your old neighborhood. As an alternative to visiting her gravesite, consider taking yourself or your family for a walk around the area your mother raised you. Sometimes people feel a little awkward standing next to a silent grave. Why not tour around streets and sights that can come alive with memory?
If you have children of your own, we encourage you to incorporate them into some of these activities, that’s how a true legacy is created. But be prepared, your kids are going to respond in their own way which may possibly include a lack of enthusiasm. They’re not being mean, they just don’t understand yet.
Make sure that you reserve some time to be alone with your mom and your memories, because no one had the same relationship with her that you had, and no one misses her exactly the same as you do.
Wishing you a beautiful Mother’s Day.
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