Photographing Symbols Around Mother's Day
/ Photogrief : Eleanor Haley
This essay is a part of WYG's PhotoGrief project. The goal of the PhotoGrief project is to create a space where people can explore and express their grief through pictures. Learn more about the project here.
Mother's Day is a quintessential happy-sad day for me. I have two endlessly enjoyable daughters who give me lovely cards and crafts each year and who get excited to plan some special surprise with their Dad. The flowers pictured above were one such unexpected treat. A happy spring bouquet in my favorite color - purple. I never think to buy flowers for the house, but I always enjoy having them around.
The thing about this Mother's Day bouquet though, as beautiful as it was, I couldn't really relate to it until it started to droop. One day I walked by the bouquet and said, "Ahhh, now we are on the same page. Now you look the same way I feel about Mother's Day."
When I was younger, we never did much to recognize Mother's Day. Maybe we brought home crafts from school, went to church together, and took a trip to the local Olive Garden. No big celebrations or gifts, that wasn't really the sort of thing my mother expected or (I think) even wanted. My mother loving us and us loving her was an everyday thing, we didn't need a holiday to emphasize this.
Oddly, since my mother's death, Mother's Day has taken on much greater significance. I guess because our mutual love and appreciation isn't an everyday thing anymore. Where Mother's Day used to be an excuse to go out to dinner, now it's one long reminder of my mother's absence.
Whenever I tell people the title of the above photo is "Mother's Day Flowers", they immediately get it. What photographs symbolize your feelings towards Mother's Day? Are they symbolic expressions of your grief? Are they photographs that remind you of your loved one? Are they images of hope and strength? Share your Mother's Day photos with us by submitting them to be featured on PhotoGrief or share them with the WYG community on our Facebook Page.
We invite you to share your experiences, questions, and resource suggestions with the WYG community in the discussion section below.
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