Mother’s Day is described as a holiday filled with flowers, brunch, and gratitude, but it can feel exhausting for someone whose mother died in childhood. The expected grief is tender and sweet, focused on missing hugs, cooking, and childhood rituals, often shared through sentimental posts. There is little room for grief that is not soft or pretty, including grief that includes anger. The loss is tied to a slow decline from glioblastoma, diagnosed when the narrator was five. Illness took away the mother’s voice and limited shared stories, leaving only one remembered exception.
"Mom was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the deadliest form of brain cancer, when I was 5 years old and she was 45. My 5'10″, brilliant, academic mother lived eight more years, helped by experimental treatments. But "living" isn't really the word for what those final years became, especially for someone as accomplished and poised as she had been. She was some version of herself for the first couple of years, but the rest were a terrible, long decline."
Read at BuzzFeed
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