Let’s Look At This Mother’s Day In The Carnage Of A Pandemic Circa 2021

Let’s understand that while we celebrate, days like Mother’s Day might not be a happy time for all around, especially not in the current times.

Last year on the occasion of Mother’s Day, I wrote an article talking about difficult pregnancies so many women go through to become a mother. I wrote that piece on a close friend’s pregnancy journey.

Sadly with the second surge in COVID cases in India since April 2021 and the number of people we lost as a country, this particular day I choose to also remember and pray for the souls of the mothers any person, of any age may have lost.

One cannot even imagine the level of grief and the sense of helplessness a person would feel losing a family member, their mother – who gave them life and the deep feeling, that of a failure for not being able to save her life. The unfortunate and absolutely unfair consequence, that of a life lost and these emotions that will persist among those they left behind.

Family and friends I know lost

The friend whom I interviewed last year lost her father few days ago. Her young daughter, all of two years is wondering why her mother is crying all day.

A colleague in her mid-40s lost her life few days ago leaving behind a young girl on the cusp of her teenage years.

A friend’s younger sister carried her baby to full term; the baby did not make it past that day.

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Her older sister gave birth to her second daughter the same month.

Days like Mother’s Day also remind us of the loss

What we need more than ever this year, is compassion for such days that honour relationships in the family (Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Siblings Day etc.) as it is hard to escape them on most platforms on social media.

Understanding that this day may not be easy for all – having lost the family member or perhaps even just not having a great relationship with them.

So often we overlook how these days remind some people perhaps of their difficult/ traumatic childhoods, teen years and even at times a toxicity in relationships within their family.

Some are blessed to have a loving family while others may have never even known their mothers and fathers.

Let’s make it inclusive, not just a celebration

So perhaps we need to make such days more inclusive, to include all kinds of relationships of a maternal sense on Mother’s Day.

So here’s to –

1. The biological moms
2. The foster moms
3. The step moms
4. The not-yet moms
5. The pet moms
6. Those without moms
7. The single moms
8. The grieving moms
9. Moms who lost their children
10. Those who lost their moms
11. Those with strained relationships with their moms
12. Moms with strained relationships with their child/children
13. Those yearning to be moms
14. And those who have chosen not to be moms

As this year has been an all too vivid a reminder of one’s survival and valuing relationships, let not this year and such days pass us by without thinking of those where this may be a hard day.

So celebrate by all means, online and offline, but let a prayer manifest in your thoughts today, as this day may also bring for some people grief, pain, hurt or just memories.

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