To My Kids on Mother’s Day, After I’m Gone

Don’t be sad today — my soul will never leave you, it’s inside your heart, your bodies, your very being

Happy Mother’s Day, my loves — or, as I’m calling it today: iPad Day!

Hopefully you’ll be re-reading this years and years from now when YOU’RE all really old — or at least old enough to be wearing reading glasses like I am now, at age 45.

Here’s what I want you to know, although you already do: I LOVE YOU. I love you so much that even though my body is gone from the earth, my love for you still swirls around in every gust of wind or blanket of fog or sunshine that warms your face. Even a splattering of rain (“always go to parties in the rain!”) contains bits and pieces of my spirit and soul.

I do NOT want you to be sad today. Do you hear me?! I mean it! Mother’s Day is a chance for everyone to stop and just appreciate their moms, even if their moms have died like me as you read this in the future, even if their moms aren’t their actual moms but women (or men! Or non-binary caregivers!) who took care of them. Aunts. Sisters. Close family friends. Caregivers. Step-moms and mothers-in-law.

I’m not sure how Mother’s Day started (Siri??!), but I’d guess it’s because in other cultures, sons and daughters…