This weekend, though filled with memories and absences, has a bright purpose: to celebrate Mother’s Day with the woman who shares my life. And that decision, so simple on the surface, holds within it a profound gesture of love, of emotional resilience, and of a celebration of life, even when the heart bears scars.
I am going to set the scene to make this day special. Not because sadness does not exist, but precisely because it does. Because I know that my mother is no longer here, that her voice belongs to the sacred realm of memories, and that every second Sunday in May brings with it an echo of nostalgia. But I also know that motherhood lives on in my home, embodied in my wife, in her tenderness, in her strength, in the way she has supported her children even from a distance.
Celebrating her is honouring that continuity, that thread that remains unbroken even as life takes on new forms.
This weekend, I want to pause time for a moment. I want to cook something she likes, put on some soft music, open the windows to let the light in and let the house breathe a different air. I want her to feel that this day does not go unnoticed, that her motherhood matters, that her devotion remains a beacon. Because even though her children are far away, even though the distance hurts, she remains a mother every day, in every thought, in every memory she holds, in every message she awaits.
Celebrating with her is also a way of healing. It is acknowledging that grief does not have to take over everything. That even in the midst of absence, a space of tenderness can be created. That honouring my mother does not mean getting stuck in sadness, but allowing the love she gave me to be transformed into gestures towards the woman who walks by my side today. My mother is no longer with us, but her legacy of love lives on in me, and this weekend I want to turn that legacy into presence, into companionship, into celebration.
What’s more, spending this day with my wife is a way of supporting her through her own pain. Her children live in another country, and although distance doesn’t erase love, it does leave a void that weighs heavily. Being together this Sunday is a way of supporting one another, of telling each other without words that we are not alone, that family is also built on the bond between two people who choose each other every day.
So this weekend will not just be a celebration; it will be a conscious act of love. A reminder that life continues to offer reasons to be grateful, even when it hurts. A space to honour the mothers who are no longer with us and those who continue to struggle, love and hope. A moment to embrace memory and, at the same time, presence.
Because celebrating Mother’s Day with my wife is, at its heart, a celebration of life itself.
Note: I used the DeepL Translate translation tool.
The images are my own.