Janice Charron (D'Ettorre)

It’s been five years since we have seen my mother’s face. Five years since the hugs, the calls, the moments and the memory making. Five years since the last laugh and the final conversation. It’s been five years since she left this world.
Five years of being an entirely different person with empty spaces and silent longing. It’s been five years of marking death anniversaries on the calendar. Five years of forced growth and unwanted change. Five years of daily remembrances and grief that is often forgotten or unknown by others.
Today it’s been five years of life without her. Five years of constantly showing up with a broken heart and still finding pieces of joy and happiness. The best days are the ones with gentle reminders of the pieces of her that remain, in us, and in every delicate piece of the legacy she left behind.
Maybe today we mark the successes of these five years instead of the trauma and the devastation of what this day signifies.
We must remember that while she’s been gone five long years, we also survived five long years. At the beginning we weren’t sure we would last five days or even 5 minutes, but here we are. This is not just the anniversary of the day she left but also the anniversary of the day we survived.
Always with us and a part of us. Love Merrill, Jeff & Jana (and Karma), Jen & Darren and baby Jax.