How to Celebrate Mother’s Day When You are Estranged From Your Child
Being estranged from my beloved child is one of the hardest things I have ever had to endure. There is no way to describe the grief and despair of losing your child while they are still alive somewhere on this earth.
It’s especially hard at holidays, which by their nature are days we get together with our families and celebrate. When our child — or children — who are lost to estrangement are not there, it can leave a gaping wound, making you feel that it would be better just to skip the special days. It’s hard enough on ordinary days, but celebratory days can be excruciating.
Mother’s Day was always an especially difficult day for me in the early years of my estrangement from my daughter. No other day could send me into a tailspin of misery like that day. I cried, A LOT. I spent the day in a straight-jacket of grief.
I would tell myself it’s not supposed to be this way, wondering why it had happened to me. I would feel so ashamed that my daughter had estranged herself from me. I could spiral into a pretty low place, and spend quite a bit of time there.
Then I learned to change my idea of how things are supposed to be. Yes, it would be ideal if I had never made mistakes as a mother that caused my child to cut me out of her life. No, mothers aren’t…
