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Health & Fitness

A Different Kind of Mother's Day by Toby Shylit Mack

Bring joy and meaning to your Mother's Day celebration by making a difference for those who have lost thier beloved mothers.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner. Let's remember our mothers by giving back

How to celebrate and honor mothers who are no longer with us.

Mother’s Day is a time for joyful celebration with family. On a usually beautiful day in May mothers, grandmas and great grandmas gather with their families, children and grandkids at homes and in restaurants to feast on brunches and dinners, read cards and open gifts to pay homage to the institution of Motherhood. Our mothers spent hours in labor or endured the painstaking adoptions process so, we their children, can grace this beautiful earth.

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Celebrating Mother’s Day is the least we can do to honor and show our gratitude to these special women.

But alas life’s joys give way to life’s sorrows as we lose those women who wiped our tears as they cried with us and who spent sleepless nights rearing us from
infancy into adulthood. No matter what age we are, we will always be their children whom they worried about until the day they took their last breaths.

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The death of one’s mother is a profound loss regardless of age or cause of death. It is a loss that leaves a hole in our hearts that neither time nor circumstance can
heal. And yet we go on and carve out the life that is meant for us. Because
that is what our mothers would want us to do. They left us something that
defies death. They left us their undying love and pieces of themselves that
inform our everyday lives, that we see whenever we look in the mirror and hear
in our voices as we negotiate our own roles as mothers. 

Our mothers left us amazing legacies. Their spirits live within us and have far reaching impact on our families. Their cherished memories continue to be with us until we take our last breaths. How fitting is it then to remember them lovingly on
Mother’s Day by passing on those memories.  We can do that in a myriad of ways. We can sharetheir photographs and stories with their namesakes and the new generations whonever met them. We can refer to traits or likenesses in other  family members that remind us of our departed matriarchs. We can impart life lessons learned from our mothers to the younger generations. We can continue to give mementos of our mothers as gifts, whether it is precious jewelry, an article of clothingor a wedding handkerchief. Anything that will carry on their legacies will be meaningful to the person who receives it.

Let us also be mindful of our own legacies that we can leave behind when it is time toleave our loved ones behind. Just as Mary Lou Quinlan found meaningful insight into her beloved mother when she discovered a multitude of rattan boxes (whichshe loving referred to as “God Boxes”) in her mother’s closet filled with heartfelt prayers and wishes for family, friends and acquaintances. You too can  start a legacy that future generations will treasure. Always remember to take lots of photographs and send cards with personal loving messages to have lasting impact on your family.  Be creative and leave something that is uniquely yours.

Or start your own God Boxes.

This Mother’s Day Instead of a new bag, perfume or robe, give mothers a   meaningful gift that gives back, a ticket to The God Box: a daughter’s 
story, a
beautifully poignant one woman show about Love Loss and Legacy 
performed by Mary Lou Quinlan, writer, actress and New York Times bestselling
author of The God Box, as a fundraiser to benefit GIERS.

Mother’s Day Special $25 includes performance and signed copy of The God Box

GIERS: Grief Information Education & Recovery Services.

GIERS: Executive Directors

Bernice Garfield- Szita  MS  LPC TEP &  Bob Szita MS LCP TEP

EVENT PRODUCER: Toby Shylit Mack

Saturday May 25th at 2 PM.

Applewood Estates Performing Arts Center

1 Applewood Drive

Freehold, NJ 07728

$20 General Admission     $27 Ticket & Copy of the God Box book

Purchase Tickets: www.giers.org or Call 732-577-1076

Following the performance there will be
an audience talkback, book signing (books sold separately for $10) and
reception with refreshments

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