The best place to start for information and understanding of what it means to be a motherless daughter is to read Hope Edelman’s book “Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss”.  Here you will find information on grief, what effects early mother loss has on a girl as she goes through her life, different coping styles and commonalities among all of us who experienced early mother loss.

The follow-up book, “Letters from Motherless Daughters” was written by Hope based on the incredible response to her first book.  “Letters from Motherless Daughters” is a selection of the letters from motherless women who were moved by Hope’s book.  Reading this may help you feel less alone.

When she became a parent, she found herself revisiting her loss in ways she had never anticipated. Now the mother of two young girls, Edelman set out to learn how the loss of a mother to death or abandonment can affect the ways women raise their own children. From her exhaustive investigation, including a survey of more than one thousand women, comes Motherless Mothers, the enlightening and inspiring next step in the motherless journey.  

Motherless Mothers is now available in paperback.