Mother’s Day… The lead up to this day when you are a Motherless Daughter can be Excruciating. The commercials, advertisement for flowers and gifts it seems that everywhere you turn there is a constant reminder of the loss of our Mother.  Alica Forneret calls it the Dead Mom’s Club she created pins and had them uniquely designed for other Motherless daughters to wear as a reminder of the club you find yourself in when you have lost your Mom. The artist Alica worked with is from Australia and the company that printed the pins is from Thunder Bay(where Alica’s mom grew up).  It’s a club you didn’t sign up for but when you enter this club there is a sisterhood that is deep and wide.    Alica is a creative writer, editor and she explores death, dying and grief through storytelling.

Mud to Lotus Podcast

On Today’s episode, Angela interviews Alica forneret. Alica is a creative exploring grief, death and dying through story telling. She is also the founder of the Dead Moms Club. Alica, at the age of 27, lost her mom in 2016. In this episode, Alica discusses her Mom’s story, the Dead Moms Club, her experience with grief, the grieving process and Mother’s Day. Alica’s mom was raised in Canada then moved to California. She passed in October 2016. Alica has been grieving her mother’s death for two years now.

Key Topics

• The Dead Moms Club
• Emotions around Mother’s Day
• Alica’s mud to lotus moment
• The anticipation is the worst
• Story of how her mother’s passing
• Travel heals trauma
• You have to feel it
• Life before Mother’s loss and life after
• Overwhelming gratitude
• You don’t need the words or condolences
• How writing has helped Alica through this process
• Vulnerability and bravery
• Importance of sharing the experience you don’t want to talk about
• The place you don’t want to go is the place you need to go
• Knowing what to say or do
• Knowing what not to say
• Dead Mom’s Club pins
• Book recommendations
• It’s okay not to be okay

Connect with Alica:

Alicaforneret.com

[email protected]

Angela True is a writer, speaker, coach and counselor in training. Through narrative therapy, coaching and walking with survivors, Angela counsels others on grief, loss, trauma and resilience. As a survivor of gun violence, Angela created Mud to Lotus as a way to talk with people about how they crawled out of the darkest day of their life. You can find Angela at angelatruewriter.com and contact her at [email protected]. Angela also provides 20-minute free consultations. To schedule, please visit angelatruewriter.com/coaching/.

Resource Recommendations:

It’s ok that you’re not ok – Megan Devine

Dead Moms Club – Kate Spencer

Someone you love is gone – Gurjinder Basran

Bloodroot: Tracing the Untelling of Motherloss

Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss
Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found

Claire Warden Online Courses

The Dead Mom’s Club pins that Alica created with a design from a local artist where her mother was from.

The Lead up to Mother’s Day as a Motherless Daughter.

The things people say and don’t say when we lose our Mother’s.

How to normalize the conversations we have around the loss of our mothers.

How writing helps us work through our grief and sharing helps others feel a little less alone in the world of grief.

How Travel can be helpful and also difficult when your not surrounded with a support system.  Creating memories outside of your loss.

It’s Ok to not be OK. Grieving takes time and it’s specific for each person there is no manual for your grief.

The things we hold onto that help us stay close to our Mothers.  Hummingbirds, Flowers, Dragonflies

You can find Alica Forneret here and sign up to receive a list of books or resources via email.

www.alicaforneret.com

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