A review by trudilibrarian
Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss by Hope Edelman

4.0

This is an important book for any woman who has lost her mother at any age, but especially before she turns twenty. I was lucky enough to have my mom until I was 36. She was only 57 when she died, still way too young, but I can’t imagine having lost her when I was still a child or a teenager. I can’t even bear thinking of it. This book was a very cathartic experience for me in many ways. It taught me that this profound loss isn’t something I get over or around, or something I let go of; rather, it is something I must learn to accommodate into my life, gradually making peace with it. It’s a part of me now, who I am, who I will become. Hope Edelman ends her book with this beautiful passage:

I am fooling myself when I say my mother exists now only in the photographs on my bulletin board or in the outline of my hand or in the armful of memories I still hold tight. She lives beneath everything I do. Her presence influenced who I was, and her absence influences who I am. Our lives are shaped as much by those who leave us as they are by those who stay. Loss is our legacy. Insight is our gift. Memory is our guide.