My first Mother's Day without a mother

It's Mother's Day in America. It's two months since my mother died, and it doesn't feel good to think about Mother's Day without her around. My brother Kevin mentioned this to me last week. "I went to Kroger today and they have dozens of helium-filled Happy Mother's Day balloons in the store. It was a bit strange and unsettling," he wrote.

When I was in America a few weeks ago and found myself wandering past Mother's Day sections with cards, presents and suggestions of how to honor your mother on her special day, I felt sad.

Here's a picture of my mother when she was a child. I like to think of her as a happy child, before marriage and Multiple Sclerosis made her life hellish.

I made a Mother's Day card for her when I was little. Here it is (my childhood nickname was Tizzy, and some people still call me that).

I don't know what to do about my feelings of sadness today, but will take comfort from this:

There is a land of the living, and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love. Thornton Wilder