About this episode

This episode explores the unique and often unspoken grief experienced by women who have lost their mothers.

This one is for all the women out there who lost their mothers. If you’ve ever wondered why grief from a mother's death doesn't follow the timeline the world expects, why it surges at 51 when you pass the age your mother died, why menopause brings a wave of loss that has nothing to do with hormones, or why you still don't know how to answer "I'm sorry" decades later, this episode is the one you've been waiting for. Tamsen Fadal lost her mother at 20. For nearly 30 years she didn't talk about it. Hope Edelman lost her mother at 17, couldn't find a single book written for young women who'd gone through the same thing, and eventually wrote it herself. That book, Motherless Daughters, has now reached millions of readers and sparked decades of retreats, support groups, and communities built around the specific kind of grief that never goes away. In this episode, you'll learn: - Why your age at the time of loss is the most defining factor in how mother loss shapes you - What "new old grief" is, and why it floods back the moment you become a mother yourself - Why grief that looked like getting a tattoo, changing your friend group, or throwing yourself into work is still grief - The…

People in this episode

Host: Tamsen Fadal

Guest: Hope Edelman

Topics covered

• grief
• loss of a mother
• women's experiences
• mental health
• support groups
• personal growth

Keywords

• grief
• mother loss
• Hope Edelman
• Tamsen Fadal
• mental health
• support groups
• personal growth
• loss timeline
• new old grief

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Motherless Daughters

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