On a day when mothers across the country are being showered with homemade crafts, bouquets of flowers and breakfast in bed, those who have lost their matriarch find today a little tougher.
Mother’s Day, and the lead up to it, can stir up painful emotions.
Canberra father Lach Searle and his two young children are spending another Mother’s Day without wife and mother Rebecca McGloughlin, who died two years ago, and the day poses new challenges each year.
“This will be our third without Bec,” Mr Searle said.
“It’s different each year, because obviously the kids are growing up and they don’t have any memories themselves of what Mother’s Day was like with their mother, because they were too little, so it is whatever we really make it.”
To help navigate a life without their beloved family member, Mr Searle writes letters to his children Tommy and Lottie (Lotts) of stories and memories of their mum, publishing them on his blog, The Daddy Letters.
He said it was mainly a written record for his kids to look back on, but by posting them publicly he has been able to connect with others.
"Ultimately it's for them, but it is nice to share as well," he said.
"By sharing it I've been able to touch base with a few other widows and widowers who have been thinking similar things and going through similar things at the same time."
Last week Mr Searle posted a raw and honest account of how his young family were coping as another Mother's Day loomed.
In the letter titled Your Loss, Mr Searle wrote:
"For some reason, this last week has been a bit more intense than others, but I think I know why. I'm guessing the Mother's Day build up has had a bit to do with that. No, actually a lot.
So for me, Mother's Day is about your loss, and your grief. Yours Tommy, and yours Lotts. Which is why we'll take it slowly this week and do our own little things to have fun and to remember. But we'll also try and minimise the impact of a day, that really lasts a couple of weeks."
Now the children are old enough for school, Mr Searle said the challenge was coping with more than just that one day.
"The tricky thing for the kids is Mother's Day at school is quite a build-up, so I'm just trying to manage that and doing things that they want to do and not putting too much pressure on the day, " he said.
"We'll do something special to remember their mummy, but really it's evolving ... we will come up with our own thing over time because as the years go on things will change."
