Mother's Day Suggestions for Those Whose Mom is Deceased

The past two years, I've bypassed Mother's Day celebrations. My mom lost her battle to lung cancer in June 2008 and my daughter moved out of state six months later. For me, there was no need to celebrate Mother's Day without my mom or daughter.

Prior to mom's death, Mother's Day was a fun family event. It was the only day she would allow her children to treat her like a Queen. We'd organize a pitch-in dinner which always consisted of BBQ meats, garden salad, potato salad, baked beans, chips, veggies, dips, and at least two decadent desserts.

For years, much of the food served for Mother's Day celebrations came from mom's garden. She was an avid gardener who tended to a 1/2-acre vegetable garden and a few fruit-bearing trees. She also grew award-winning roses. Although, mom never entered a contest, every person in our neighborhood would tell you mom's roses were the envy of the community.

As mom grew older, we would surprise her with a truckload of flower plants and spend the morning landscaping her yard on Mother's Day. Once it became too difficult for her to weed the flowers, we bought hanging planters, flower boxes that attached to her porch railings, and large flower pots to decorate her deck.

Some of my fondest memories revolve around Mother's Day, so this year I've decided to take this special day off the shelf and dust it off. My goal was to create new traditions and incorporate things to honor my mom and myself.

Once I made the decision to do something special on Mother's Day, the topic seemed to come up frequently. There are many people who dread this day and, like me, choose to ignore it. The truth is it's hard to ignore. Your heart reminds you the entire day of who you're missing.

After talking with friends, I came up with a list of ideas for honoring my mom on this special day. I hope you'll find one or two that will ease your grief and allow you to honor your mother in your own special way.

Plant a Flower Garden

Planting a flower garden is a beautiful way to honor your mom. Although I fail miserably at growing roses, I'm choosing bright red, yellow, and purple flowers because these were mom's favorite colors.

If space is limited, consider a hanging basket or small portable planter. For those with zero outdoor space, consider planting an indoor garden or terrarium.

Create a Photo Scrapbook

While it can be difficult to look at photos, it can also be very healing. Documenting your family legacy is a great way to keep memories alive. Craft stores offer a wide variety of scrapbooking materials that can forever preserve treasured photos.

Scrapbooks are the perfect way to display photos because you can write event descriptions, dates, and include personal notes. You can also purchase all kinds of stick-on items and textured backgrounds to jazz-up presentations.

Turn Mom's Recipes into a Cookbook

I inherited my mom's recipe box filled with handwritten directions on yellowing index cards. My mom was the Cooking Queen, but most of her recipes were in her head. I want to forever preserve the ones she wrote on cards.

Thanks to modern technology, creating a cookbook is easy and affordable. Tastebook.com and CreateMyCookbook.com are great resources for those who want to copy-and-paste recipes into a template. Both companies offer a variety of covers and binders along with the option to add recipes at a later time.

There are also several self-publishing venues, such as Lulu.com, that make it easy to create a cookbook at an affordable price. Cookbooks are a great gift for family members and the perfect way to preserve your mom's recipes.

Indulge in an Old-Fashioned Mother's Day Dinner

Chances are my mother is annoyed that I have deprived myself of our long-running Mother's Day meal. This year, we're firing up the grill and indulging in the homemade potato salad, slow-cooked brown sugar bacon baked beans, deviled eggs, veggie tray with my sister's infamous Beau Monde onion dip, and the one dessert my mom never had the chance to try - pink champagne cake with whipped cream frosting and chocolate covered strawberries. That tasty morsel will be my contribution to future Mother's Day celebrations.

There is no doubt holidays are not quite the same when moms pass away. Mother's Day and mom's birthday seem to be the hardest for me. I know there are millions of women and men coping with grief over the loss of their mother's too. My hope is one of these suggestions for Mother's Day celebrations when your mom is deceased will help ease the pain.

Sources:

CreateMyCookbook.com

Tastebook.com

Jennifer Akers: How To Celebrate Mother's Day When Your Mom is Deceased

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