International Bereaved Mother’s Day

- Sunday 4th May 2025 -

Another wonderful, supportive day, allowing Mums to come together and share in a morning tea, as we honour them and remember their beautiful children. Below is the welcome, delivered by our President

Welcome

It is so lovely to see you all here and be able to share some time with you as we celebrate each and every one of you as Mothers.

And each year, I sit and consider what I can say to each of you to help you through this day in remembering your loved ones and the joy they brought into your lives.

Because if I was to ask each of you what being a mother meant, I am sure we would have a variety of different, beautiful responses – all having meaning and significance, but this is something that I found that I could imaging my wife or my mum saying to me: “Being a mother means being completely and totally overwhelmed (in the best possible way) by love, joy, responsibility, and selflessness. Motherhood means sleepless nights, big belly laughs, caterpillars on the coffee table, finger-painting in the kitchen, stubbed toes, and gapped toothed grins. Motherhood has made life more colorful than I ever knew it could be. Being a mom means my children carry my heart and soul in the palms of their hands”

And yet who could ever have been brave enough to consider that one day we would walk this earth without our loved ones physically besides us?

But there are things I want you to know:

      I am so sorry for your loss

      You are and will always be a Mother (with a capital “M”) and when asked how many children you have – answer boldly and always include those that wait for you in eternity.

      Your love is valid and worthy of expression. Grief is love with no place to go, so tears are fine, laughter is fine.
No one tells you how to express your heart in carrying the legacy of your loved ones.

      You are brave. You have received the harshest blow that a heart should endure and yet, you are still standing. You get up every day and carry on. You continue to love the people in your life and other family members.

      You are strong - not because you want to be, but because you have had to be.

      You are beautiful - because every time you look in the mirror and notice the circles under your eyes, or the lines around your mouth – you see the scars of love and sacrifice. They bear witness to the fact that you choose to carry on and carry your child’s legacy, even though at times, it costs you every once of energy you can muster.

      You are a living legacy for your missing child

      You have a story to tell – so tell it. Tell the world of your loved ones

This day is for you. It is set aside for all Mothers who have a child that they can no longer physically hold – but who carry that child today, tomorrow and for eternity, in their hearts. That is a love so special, so unbreakable and so pure.

I would like you to raise your glass and join me in a toast – as we celebrate the lives of all of our beautiful children.

I must say thank you to those that have made this day possible:

·     Our Patrons Mary & Tony Carroll. We continue to be in your debt for the support, love and guidance that you both provide to TCF

·      Carroll & O’Dea for the use of the rooms here today

·      The TCF Board for continuing to support our community

·      Peter Rappo – a trojan – and today having to carry out many of the duties of his lady wife, as she supports and helps to organize us in making the day work (and for those of you that are unaware, Joy is currently recovering after major surgery – so we send her our love and best wishes).

·      Jo Moses our wonderful office staff member

·      Kym Bailey, and her son Liam, Dennise Terry & Geoff Hughes, Michele Wafta & Ann Johnson

·      Ashlee Kaminski from the Sibling group