Letter from Motherless Daughters: Words of Courage, Grief, and Healing

You will find, as I did, while reading this book, that daughters of women who have died are not alone. What a relief to me to know, at the age of 30+, that I wasn't crazy because I still want my mother when I'm sick, down, or just want to talk. I was eight when my mother succumbed to cancer within ten days of diagnosis--needless to say, we were shocked--I'm still shocked. If you have been grieving for your mother for a few weeks, or for many years, this is the book for you. It's not really a self-help type book, but you will find relief within the pages.

This book allowed me to work through much of my grief after my mother unexpectedly died. The raw pain of many of these women coming through the pages made me profoundly sad, yet grateful that there were so many others feeling like me. I feel like all of us motherless daughters share a life-altering experience, and the connections I have made with strangers (from the woman on customer service line of my mother's insurance provider to the florist) bolster that feeling. The letters written by women who lost their mothers many years prior were particularly helpful to me. I am relieved to know what to expect.

I am 19 years old and lost my mother to a brain tumor on March 27, 1997. Hope's "Motherless Daughters" was the third bereavement-help book I had read, and by far surpassed my expectations. Without this book, I would have never known that all the feelings I have been consumed by since her death--guilt, anger, sadness and an incredible sense of loss (not only of her, but of my family altogether)--were normal. This past year has been incredibly difficult since my father remarried in June, one year and three months after Mom died. Hope's book addressed this and other issues that my family, friends, and even those I feel closest to do not dare to confront. This is a book you will want close to you during those endless nights of sadness, tears and hopelessness. It is a book that justified the burning anger I feel every time I think of all the moments in my life my mother and I would have shared if she had not died so young. "Motherless Daughters & quot; is a comforting presence--written by one who knows what it's like just as well as anybody. Thank you, Hope. If you had not written the book, I know I would have later in life!I love you, Mom. Kathy Louise Laird O'Brien November 19, 1952 - March 27, 1997

I am 29 and lost my mother to cancer 13 years ago. Until I read Hope's first book I did not fully understand that deep empty feeling that I have carried with me all these years. It was touching to read letters from so many other women that feel the loss as long as I have and now have a way to justify what we are feeling. Thank you to all the woman who wrote your letters and to you Hope for sharing them with me. To cry with others after all this time has been a sort of catharsis for me. I miss and love you mom.

It will be 12 years in Aug since my mother died of cancer. I was in denial for a couple of years. I could not speak her name or hear her name, even though I wanted so badly to talk about her, without going into a crying jag. I was 20 and had to go through very important events and stages in my life without my mother. About 4 years ago my mother-in-law gave me a book Motherless Daughters. I think I cried through the whole book. It has been a very important part of my healing process. I am not alone and I am not crazy! Not a day goes by that I don't think about Mom and the love she had for me. She is my guardian angel.