bara Sherrod (2000), a middle-aged woman who recently
lost her own mother, described her response to this loss and said that it was the most painful experience of her life. Sherrod (2000) was physically present at her mother's death and states that while she recognized that her mother (who had suffered from a long and extremely painful illness) was finally at peace, she and her siblings were left with a sense of permanent bereavement and even of anger. Others have argued that the loss of a parent and particularly the loss of a mother, is especially traumatic to a daughter for whom the bond with a mother is one of the strongest of all intimate relationships (Pill & Zabin, 1997).
It is the purpose of this report to examine the issue of loss attendant upon the death of a mother from a perspective of mother/daughter bonding. The published professional literature will be explored to identify key themes with respect to how such a loss impacts upon the surviving daughter and how survivors cope with this loss. The report will also include a brief interview conducted by the researcher in which a recently bereaved daughter agreed to discuss her own feelings attendant upon the death of her mother.
Sigman and Wilson (1998) explored the psychological impact of loss and attachment among motherless daughters. They asserted that trauma and bereavement are interrelated phenomenon which intersect when a mother's death is sudden and traumatic in nature. Their empirical study consisted of a sample of 79 women
aged 17 to 68 who had experienced the deaths of their mothers, often in traumatic ways. A standardized instrument measured grief, bereavement, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychiatric symptoms, and an overall sense of well-being. The results of the study indicated that there were prolonged effects associated with bereavement, including PTSD symptoms, depression, somatization, and preoccupation with memories of the dece...