Not only did we celebrate Mother’s Day in quarantine this month, but we also celebrated Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week, which is critical in any year, but especially this year. Here at Poppy Seed Health we know that too often our mental health is questioned and dismissed. When we asked mamas from around the country to submit stories, we heard your struggles, joys, and mishaps loud and clear: You told us about your anxiety. About feeling helpless. About asking yourself the question: “Shouldn’t I know what to do?”

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week overlapped with National Nurses Week, which felt bittersweet to me this year since one of my dearest friends, Adam, was fighting for his life in intensive care while battling COVID-19. While the nurses did all they could to save his life and succeeded, the day after he was discharged, his best friend - his mother - was admitted to the hospital with COVID-19. 

Just a few short days after entering intensive care, Adam and his sister, Sara, lost their mother, Cynthia.

Sara shared a tribute to her mom with all of us that began as  a family text thread.  She wrote, “She wasn’t just a mom, she was a cool mom. She loved being a mom, too...to everyone. She did everything, for everyone else - everything. And then this virus came...and she was already so tired. She needed rest as it was.”

Her note got me thinking about all the mamas out there who do everything for everyone else and how they deserve so much more than this one day in May when they get a smidgen of gratitude. So, in my loudest and proudest voice to reach the people in the back, let me take this moment to say:

To the “everything” and “everyone else” mamas who are protecting and guiding us from the other side, we see you, we love you, we thank you and we miss you.

As we dedicate this edition of The Push in memory of Cynthia Hassen Gutowski, Adam and Sara’s mom, we also celebrate her life and the lives of all the mamas we have lost. 

Because when one mother passes another is born. 

For our earthside mamas, soon-to-be mamas and rainbow mamas we celebrate you every day and in our collection of stories submitted from mamas around the country, it’s the everyday stuff that actually makes the journey worthwhile.

With Love,

Simmone