Life Lessons That Last

My Mom Made Us Watch The Movie “Imitation of Life” So We Could Appreciate Her

This intense, sad movie about mother/daughter relationships had us sobbing with grief

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“There’s no need to charm your mother, she thought. Which is both a compliment and a burden.”
― Jane Caro, The Mother

I first saw the 1959 version of the movie Imitation of Life when I was four years old. My mother insisted I watch it with her after she saw it at a movie theater. She took me to the theater so I could see the movie.

Mom held me in her lap while the movie played. Going to the theater is one of my earliest memories of my mother because it was so devastating. I remember her smell as I sat on her lap and the feel of her hair on my shoulder. The movie was my first experience with grief.

At four, I understood little, but I knew the mother in the movie died, and the daughter was brokenhearted. I was just plain broken after seeing the movie. Was my Mom going to die? The grief I felt was as if my mom had died.

Imitation of Life / Film synopsis

Lora Meredith (Lana Turner), a white single mother who dreams of being on Broadway, has a chance encounter with Annie Johnson (Juanita…