Pain of Kate and mothers who have lost loved ones
FOR MOST people, today is one of the happiest of the year. Mothering Sunday is a time when the family gets together to say an overdue thank you to mothers for the care and love they lavish on us but, for some, this is a day of despair when the pain of missing loved ones cuts deep.
Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine went missing in Portugal almost three years ago, is one who will fi nd today an extra torment to endure. This morning, Kate spoke bravely of her ordeal in an interview with Aled Jones on BBC Radio 2.
She explained how her faith has helped sustain her and the joy she experiences in looking after her twins Amelie and Sean. As a Christian she prays for Madeleine. She also prays for the people who took her but, perhaps not surprisingly, she cannot forgive them. “The pain is just incredible,” she said. “It’s hell on earth. The worst thing that could happen to a parent. We have to live with the sadness of not having Madeleine in our lives.”
It must have required considerable courage to share these feelings. On Mother’s Day let’s think of women such as Kate and Claudia Lawrence’s mother Joan and sister Ali, and the many others who endure the agony of waiting for loved ones at the family hearth.
