Anniversary of Mom's Death

It is still April 6^th in the United States right now. Yesterday was the anniversary of my mother’s death, a thing I can always feel in the rising of flowers and widening of grass, and the radiant warmth of a changing season.

The first years after her death I felt the anniversary acutely. But lately Mom’s birthday has become more important – the day she came into the world and not the one she left it – because on either day what I feel is a tenderness, and not the angry grief dosed in hospital scenes, and not even the longing sorrow to think how excellent a grandmother she would have been to the girls – energetic, kind, fun, a match for their humor and play – and what joy they would have brought in return. Maybe Sophie helped with this, with her many questions about Mom's life and loves, because our family does not have to ache to be whole.

Myrna Grosskopf, 1945-1990.