DD – My Mom Died

Come back. Even as a shadow, even as a dream.

—Euripides

Photo by Katii Bishop

 

She has died.

I did not get a chance to say goodbye in person, but I did send a song which she loved: the last music she heard before she passed away.

It’s odd.  After growing up and experiencing all this YUCK in my relationship with my Mom, since her death, I have learned of more of the grades and shades and colours of her life.

I know that she was controlling and hard while I knew her.

But I learned that after I cut contact, and during her experience of being diagnosed with a terminal illness, Mom became softer, kinder and more outgoing. She danced! She accepted change! She showed her true self!

I feel sad that I didn’t get to see her lighter edge, but I reflect, perhaps this came because of the separation between us and/ or because of her diagnosis.  Maybe hearing, “you’re going to die and you cannot change this” changed her view of life?

I attended the ceremony last weekend, and heard stories of her life, from family… I saw other sides of her, and through my own anger and pain, I found love.  I actually felt love.  I know she was in many ways, a “bad mom” and yeh, narcissism sucks.  She was so hurtful and unkind, and i hated her for all those reasons…. but there were, although small moments, times of good.

And you know, she was still my mom… and I miss her.

I miss the times when she was light and happy.

I miss the times when she was silly and fun.

I miss the times we hugged and I felt it was a hug of LOVE.

I miss the times we laughed in authentic moments.

I miss the times we went and saw art together, drank coffee together, walked in nature.

I am beginning to remember some of the nicer things we did together, the moments we shared that were good…. and Z. says these are the things you gotta hold on to, and you gotta just let go all that shit. Naa, that doesn’t mean you forgive all the shit, but that it won’t define you after their death. I am trying.

 

I am having bouts of feeling okay and then times I just start crying.  I miss my Mom.

 

DD – Conflicted Feelings of Death

Dear Diary,

I don’t know….

Photo by rawpixel.com

So… Mom is officially dying.  The extended family has been in touch, and my Mom has a few weeks to MAYBE 2 months to live.

Damn you, Mom!! Damn you for dying. The “easy way out”, instead of living and learning to be a better person, she’s dying. When I first heard, I was filled with rage and frustration and anger.  How dare she?! How dare she fucking die and never say sorry…. and dunno, after all my emotional-ness, my pain pouring out of me, my crying in frustration, last night and this morning, i’m just…. NOTHING.

 

I feel…. *sigh* conflicted

I am still angry that she was never the mother we kids deserved, that she hurt me, teased me, controlled me, manipulated me, and mocked me.

I am still hurting from those wounds she inflicted.

I am still in disbelief that she either pretends (or actually believes?) she did none of these things; that she was/ is a perfect mom.

I am still deeply sad that I did not have a real mom, and that I will never get the chance to have that…. even to try for it…. because she’s dying, and then there will be nothing of her left on this world to make a mother-daughter relationship from.

I am still feeling unloved that she never made an attempt to reach out to me, except now, to tell my sister and I that she is on her death bed…

I am still frustrated that she could not… did not… HAS not apologized for anything.

I am still sorrowful that she could not tell us her real feelings, speak her real self— and instead we see forever this stubborn hard woman, right until the very end… where is her softness? where is her regret?

I am still enraged that I was “under the spell” for so long, and believed her put-downs of me, and that today I suffer still from those wounds, those hateful words in my mind, the ideas that I am not good enough— this struggle I fight to find my own voice.

.

.

Photo by Todd Trapani 

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And then there’s THE OTHER FEELINGS–

• Sadness, that she is suffering and in pain. No-one should suffer, even those who have hurt me… No human ought suffer.
• Hope, that she finds peace and understanding.
• Wonder, when she dies, do you think she will realize the pain and suffering her narcissism did to us (her children)?
• Relief, that finally I can be free.
• More sadness— to that when I am free, I will be completely parentless and I will raise my children without anyone from my family around them, but me.
• Sorrow, that we did have a few happy moments, and these will just be flickers of memory.
• Accomplishment, that I have done so much without her, all the things she said I would never be able to do.
• Worry, that maybe she will somehow recover from her terminal illness after all and then I have made myself vulnerable again, only to be hurt even more?
• Concern, on how my conflicted feelings may affect those around me.
• Emptiness, a sense of knowing I am alone now.

 

I do not understand entirely how I can feel so much at the same time.

 

My therapist said I should write a FAREWELL.  For closure. For peace.  And I am stumped at what to say.  I am not a hateful person, and yeh, i know, at times my blogs may suggest otherwise…. I just hurt…. and I feel so lost right now.  I cannot lie to her as a farewell, I want to speak the truth, but I am all but empty.