Not a happy day

Mother’s Day is a difficult day for me, as I expect it is for many. For most of my life, Mother’s Day was an opportunity to tell my mother that I loved her through time and tradition, sentiment and gifts. While not as joyous as a football-filled Thanksgiving or as memorable as a twinkling Christmas Eve, it was always a day of happiness and warmth.

Then my mom passed away in 2007, and in an instant, this once warm and happy day changed forever.

Mother’s Day is unusual in this way.

Rarely does a day shift so sudden and dramatically in the course of a person’s life while remaining static for so many others. Today motherless men and women will find themselves at Mother’s Day celebrations, and while they may smile and nod and express the expected congratulatory sentiments for such an occasion, the day will not be a celebration for them.

For many, Mother’s Day is a day spent remembering what they have lost while trapped in the midst of those who have not.

It can be uncommonly and unknowingly cruel for those who not blessed to have a mother in their lives.

While I can muster a certain degree of happiness in celebrating Mother’s Day with my wife, this is a day meant for mothers and their sons and daughters.

When your mom is gone, it will simply never be the same.