Blessings in Loss...Happy Mothers Day, 2026

            Sometimes we find blessings from our most traumatic loss in the strangest places. The traumatic loss that shaped me gave me empathy for others who go through that same tragedy in their own lives. Their stories always touch my soul and breaks my heart for their grief.

           My own story and my memories that surface from time to time when I least expect them, turn me into that little seven year old girl sitting on a pew in the midst of family at my mother's funeral service. She was thirty-five years old, a victim of breast cancer. This photo is a treasure, but still makes me cry. I never wanted to be anywhere but with her, and a rush comes over me reminding me how I felt in her presence. 

     

        So what brought me to this today? A movie I watched last night titled No Reservations from 2007. A car accident that took the life of a mother of a young girl, no father, no siblings, no living grandparents and no cousins and left in the care of her mother's sister. She had to leave the only life she knew, move to a strange city, start school knowing no one, living with a single aunt she hardly knew. 

         Yes, it was just a movie or just a book, or just fiction. But it reminded me of what I had at that time in my life.

             This is my Daddy on a short trip after my mother died. He was there during the long illness of my mother, keeping us all together. Owner of a store in our town, a deacon in our church and comforting us when I had no idea of his own grief. He was the one I would wake during the long nights I couldn't sleep but didn't understand why. He  was never angry, just sat with me until sleep came. And he was Daddy to my two brothers, thirteen and fifteen and a new baby sister who was only ten months old. (Maybe a good Father's day blog)

         I wasn't taken from my home to a strange place. I still lived in the only home I'd ever known, had the same neighbors, went to the same school, had the same friends, went to the same church, had grandparents, aunts, uncles and many cousins. 

        In all these long years since that time I've never given much thought to any of these things. But a sad movie about another little girl going through that grief alone brought all that to mind last night. I remember thinking of all the things I had that she didn't. I was so blessed and really had never thought about it, my focus has always been on the loss and the grief.

       Mothers Day!  We honor our living mothers and grieve those who aren't, but we can still honor them too. If you have recently been through that loss I encourage you to find the blessings. If it's been years but like myself you've never looked past the grief to see the blessings, you will find them if you try.

      Happy Mothers Day to all of you, your children are the greatest gift from a loving God. 

Proverbs 31:25-28 Strength and honor are her clothing, she shall rejoice in time to come.  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue IS the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her.