Rite of Passage

This is a deeply personal, nine-year journey through my mother’s gradual loss of memory. But it is not a sad story. Through this time together, I came to truly know the woman she was beyond motherhood. She was funny, flirtatious, vibrant, and full of surprises. Long-buried stories and secrets surfaced, revealing parts of her I had never seen before.

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I learned that staying present with someone losing their memories, though painful, can also be a gift. It offers a final chance to love without expectation. There is beauty in that space if we allow ourselves to see it.

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In her final days, we would lie together on her bed by the open window, the lace curtains lifting in the wind. Sometimes we sang songs that made no sense. I marveled at how beautiful she remained, even as confusion clouded her brow. When she took her last breath in my arms, I realized it was the greatest gift of all: to be there, holding the person who once held me.