This book is based on interviews with many mother-loss survivors. The author also discusses her own experiences with losing her mother. She discusses how a woman's identity is shaped when she she grows up in the absence of her mother and how present day relationships are defined by past losses. The author also gives an understanding of grief and how one is affected by it.

The loss of a mother is significant to any child, but especially in a woman's life. A child may go through the grieving process for years following the loss of the mother. This process is not predictable, and many women think they are over the grieving until faced with a major event in their lives. This may cause her to grieve all over again. Examp

les of when this may happen include planning a marriage, a birth or a new job. The author discussed how she much she missed her mother in the book. She "missed her mother, terribly, when I graduated from college. I missed her when I got my first job promotion" (23). Edelman lost her mother at the age of seventeen. She has found that it has also been difficult to be close to the age her mother died and to realize just how young she was when she died. Another difficult thing Edelman has faced was having trouble remembering how her mother was prior to becoming ill. Most of her memories are related to the hair loss, weight gain and stress of her mother's illness (278).

When a young woman in her twenties loses her mother, she is often very frustrated and confused. She may have a job and family of her own and may feel she doesn't need her mother anymore. She may also find that she needs and relies on her mother's encouragement and misses the time of sharing with her mother.

Children between the ages of six and twelve are said to have the hardest time coping with the death of a parent. These children are old enough to understand what has happened but do not know how to manage the emotion of the grief process. Children in this age group often try to avoid talking about what has happened and resort to fantasies of the parent's return.

The author also discussed the differences in how one reacts according to the age the child was at the death of the mother. There are significant differences in how a younger child would react in comparison with older children. Children who are six years of age or younger usually do not understand death. The child too young to have the ability to miss someone w

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Approximate Word count = 1163
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)