Happy Mother's Day From Sandy Roffey

In celebration of Mother's Day on Sunday, May 12, we asked Patch readers to write a letter to their mother and let us deliver it. This is Sandy Roffey's letter to her mom:

Dear Mom,

I know Mother’s Day is a mixed bag for you. It has to be when two of the four children who made you a mother are gone.

I know how each smile is tinted with sorrow.

Yet each Mother’s Day, you surround yourself with your remaining children and your grandchildren, letting the light of love attempt to balance out the darkness of grief. I feel blessed that you allow us to try.

This Mother’s Day is the hardest, the last day in the home where you’ve watched your grandchildren hunt for Easter eggs and open Christmas gifts, where your daughter got ready for her wedding, where your youngest son rested his head on your lap and your eldest came for refuge. Where your last living son has fought over the stove for Christmas breakfast and made you dinner every night since you broke your leg.

It’s the place where you feel your missing sons send you messages, and the place where you feel safe from the harsh realities of the world out there.

So for Mother’s Day, there’s no big gift I can give you, when you’re packing things away. There’s nothing I can wrap that will take away this sorrow or that pain. But I can tell the world how incredibly brave you are; how much I love you and am proud of you; and how we’ll get through this Mother’s Day, as always, together.

I can point out that your boys will never leave you, even if we leave the place they lived in longest. I can gift you with the knowledge that I’m sad too — that my memories of our home are strong, and when it’s no longer Amma’s House, I’ll be filled with sorrow.

But I promise you this, on Mother’s Day: We’ll make new memories in a new space. We’ll bring sunshine and light, and maybe a bit of laughter, with grandchildren and bad jokes and warm food. We’ll fill your new place with love, and stories, and photographs of those we love. And, when your leg is better, we’ll have adventures and go places we always put off going to. It’s the best gift I can think of.

I love you, Ma. Happy Mother’s Day.

Love,
Sandy

See all Mother's Day letters here.