Motherless Daughter's Day

Every year, since l996, women who have lost their mothers gather to honor their Mother’s memory and to support each other through the difficult Mother’s Day weekend. When your Mom is dead there is nothing like Mother’s Day to remind you of just how much you have lost and how painful that loss is.

In l994 Hope Edelman’s book, Motherless Daughters the Legacy of Loss, came out and created an international storm. Women from all over the world, who had experienced early mother loss, finally had a name, an understanding of why they were the way they were, and eventually an international network of support groups where they could get counseling, group therapy and the social support they had been lacking their entire lives.

I was one of these women. My mother died when I was seven. One day, I think it was in l995, I was reading Glamour magazine on the life cycle at the gym. There I saw a little blurb about Motherless Daughters and the book by Hope. I learned that there was a support group in NYC but nothing in Los Angeles. I started Motherless Daughters of Los Angeles then and the first Motherless Daughter’s Day luncheon in L.A. was born in l997. Not realizing how many might want to come, I booked a restaurant that could handle 75. Over 150 women wanted to come and we had to turn many away. As luck would have it, my son was born 2 days prior to that first luncheon, and I was unable to be there myself.

Every year since then we have gathered, the day before Mother’s Day, for our Motherless Daughter’s Day luncheon. We are blessed to be in a group of women who understand the pain of our loss. We always have a speaker, who is also a motherless daughter, (and usually an author as well), and we have our circle of remembrance ceremony. The ceremony consists of us getting up, joining hands and going around the circle one by one saying, “Irene daughter of Selma.”, “Hope daughter of Marcia.” etc… There is something about saying our mother’s name and honoring her that is very powerful and moving.

This year we are gathering on Saturday May 9th in West Los Angeles. We will be there again next year as well if you would like to attend in the future. If you have lost your mother, I want you to know you are not alone. I also want you to know that we understand how painful it is and are very sorry for your loss.

For more information about Motherless Daughters of Los Angeles, please visit www.motherlessdaughtersbiz.com/ .