The Truth About Dealing With The "Death" Of A Mother
I've read that grief is just love with nowhere to go. One thing for sure was that I loved loving my mother. She just passed over a month ago. But grief isn't what I feel entirely.
I mostly feel reverence, gratitude, peace, and forgiveness. On top of that, it feels like my heart is being hugged and comforted by God and at times it seems I feel what my mother is feeling in Heaven. I don't know how best to describe it.
Even on the day of her burial, I felt uplifted. While I was walking to her prepared gravesite, I was reminded of the story of the "Footprints in the Sand". How God carried this man through his most challenging times. I don't know what I've done to deserve such grace or where this hidden strength came from, but after bracing myself to keep any unseen uncontrollable emotions from taking flight, I let go to hear a voice say, now this is how you "go out".
My mom left a legacy. She was such an incredible woman. I was in awe of her.
Her style, wit, class, strength, love, and endurance for BS was incredible to watch. Her humor, her laughter, and the way she carried herself knowing what she had overcome could make anyone feel proud. That is what I felt as I watched people cry because of the love they felt for her. She had so many call her their second mother, yet she still made each of her actual children feel just as loved if not more loved and special. How could she balance that, a restaurant business, three kids, and keep her lawn cut and hair done? I don't know.
Oh, and the bond I felt with her was like we were twins. I felt better around her and just speaking to her lifted up my world. She gave me life and she "gave me life". I was her "ride or die". We faced many challenges together. Some I continue in honor of her. My mom was an immigrant who had us at a young age, so it is almost like we grew up together. Sometimes we'd argue about something I felt she could have done differently (because she wasn't perfect, who is?) and she'd say, "Am I the mother, or are you the mother? Am I supposed to listen to you or are you supposed to listen to me?"
I would just laugh. I don't think we ever left an argument without laughing.
So how can it be that I, crowned crybaby, who has had a few moments of outbursts, wipe her tears, and dare I say, feel even better than I did post her transition?
How can it be after moments it felt like God was playing a sick game on us by making me feel she was going to be OK, that I got so accustomed to miracles that I didn't think even for a second (until the last hours) that she'd ever leave us. It also felt like maybe He was done with creating miracles for us.
But then after journaling and reviewing and letting it out, I found a peace I have never felt, indescribable love and gratitude.
I am not one to think that living is somehow the "best outcome" for every situation. If we truly believe in God and Heaven and that God indeed has a plan and there is no better place to be than in Heaven, then how is she leaving a tragedy? Especially since she left painlessly?
Sometimes we conceptualize ideologies, but when the shit hits the fan, we are quick to throw it all away. That happens when we don't embody what it means to trust and believe in God. Well, the question is why am I more than OK after "losing" my best friend?
Because we don't "lose" anyone. If we can get past the pain, and sit quietly with God, we will feel our loved ones. The connection we made with them on Earth also doesn't leave us.
They say "the truth will set you free". Once I changed the word "death" to "transition", and that she is still here, my tears left, and loved poured in. Because I asked for support and prayers, I had so many powerful spiritual people pray for me and talk to when I was doubting God's plan. I also made sure to keep distance from people that think or believed what I believed.
What is funny, I don't feel motherless. I feel almost invincible now and in fact even closer to her and God than before…
I feel grateful for the time I was given, not taken, and appreciate all I got to experience of what she was. And that women was something special.
But I learned God didn't stop creating miracles, the miracle now is I still look forward to life. To make her proud by being even happier knowing that she wouldn't want anything less.
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Featured image via Tumblr
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Saba Tekle is a Filmmaker, Publisher, Mentor, Former Huffington Post Contributor and an Award-Winning Best-Selling Author. She is also the creator, co-author, publisher and producer of best-selling book series, "20 Beautiful Women" and soon to be docu-series. This compelling book series and movement inspired the #20beautifulwomen challenge (in which over a million women participated) and was a blog section in The Huffington Post.
ItGirl 100 Honors Black Women Who Create Culture & Put On For Their Cities
As they say, create the change you want to see in this world, besties. That’s why xoNecole linked up with Hyundai for the inaugural ItGirl 100 List, a celebration of 100 Genzennial women who aren’t afraid to pull up their own seats to the table. Across regions and industries, these women embody the essence of discovering self-value through purpose, honey! They're fierce, they’re ultra-creative, and we know they make their cities proud.
VIEW THE FULL ITGIRL 100 LIST HERE.
Don’t forget to also check out the ItGirl Directory, featuring 50 Black-woman-owned marketing and branding agencies, photographers and videographers, publicists, and more.
THE ITGIRL MEMO
I. An ItGirl puts on for her city and masters her self-worth through purpose.
II. An ItGirl celebrates all the things that make her unique.
III. An ItGirl empowers others to become the best versions of themselves.
IV. An ItGirl leads by example, inspiring others through her actions and integrity.
V. An ItGirl paves the way for authenticity and diversity in all aspects of life.
VI. An ItGirl uses the power of her voice to advocate for positive change in the world.
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Why We'll Probably Never Hear Lupita Nyong'o Share Her Relationship With The World
Lupita Nyong'o is sharing a transparent look into her life after a recent breakup.
In a cover story for NET-A-PORTER, the A Quiet Place: Day One star shed light on the significant heartbreak she experienced following the end of her relationship with ex-boyfriend and TV host, Selema Masekela.
As a public figure, Nyong'o, 39, sought to divulge the news of the breakup in hopes of presenting a more authentic perspective on the pain that follows a separation.
"I was living in a lot of pain and heartbreak," she told the publication. "I looked at the environment of my social media and thought I don’t want to be a part of this illusion that everything is always coming up roses. Surely there is a lesson for me to learn in this, and I just want to be real about it."
The Black Panther star went on to explain that her choice to be transparent with her fans about her breakup came from the certainty she felt after ending the relationship. “In my mind, when I shared my relationship status with the world, it was because I felt sure about it,” she said.
While she didn’t know how the news would land with her fans, she found relief in knowing she wasn’t alone in her experience.
“I knew how it could be interpreted; I knew it would have a life of its own,” she reflects. “But then I started to see the comments and people were being so loving and supportive. The ones that moved me the most were other people sharing their pain and their heartbreak.”
Nyong'o and Masekela went Instagram official in December 2022, publicly announcing their relationship in a couple's video. In October 2023, Nyong'o took to her personal Instagram account to share the news of her breakup in her caption, writing, "At this moment, it is necessary for me to share a personal truth and publicly dissociate myself from someone I can no longer trust.”
She continued the vulnerable note, "I find myself in a season of heartbreak because of a love suddenly and devastatingly extinguished by deception. I am tempted to run into the shadows and hide, only to return to the light when I have regained my strength enough for me to say, 'Whatever, my life is better this way.' But I am reminded that the magnitude of the pain I am feeling is equal to the measure of my capacity for love."
These days, Nyong'o tells NET-A-PORTER that she is prioritizing profound self-discovery that extends beyond her career. She notes having a deliberate and unhurried approach to understanding herself.
She also alludes to keeping her relationships private moving forward after noting it was "very, very sage" of her not to talk about her private life professionally in the days before her last relationship. "I'm going back to those days by the way," Nyong'o shares of her reinstated boundaries around her personal life.
Earlier this month, Nyong'o made headlines alongside her new boyfriend actor Joshua Jackson. Nyong'o and Jackson went through public splits from their respective SOs in October 2023, with the latter splitting from his long-time partner Jodie Turner-Smith following her divorce filing from the Dawson's Creek alum.
The pair have been spotted together as early as December 2023, but nothing screamed "couple" quite as loudly as their recent getaway to Mexico for Nyong'o's 41st birthday featuring passionate displays of affection.
"Our purpose in life is to love. And so you have to get back in it," she tells the outlet, seemingly alluding to her budding new romance.
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Featured image by Taylor Hill/Getty Images