Carmel Breathnach on Motherloss

Following Mother’s Day, we’re delighted to be in conversation with Carmel Breathnach, who writes and speaks about her mother’s death and her grief that followed. In Episode Five of Grief and Gratitude, Carmel reads a short piece about how therapy wasn’t a fit for her, how it’s not the Irish way: “We’re private people, us Irish.” Then during the pandemic, she met with a therapist who helped. Someone to “bear witness, listen, and validate my grief experience.” Carmel shares how she found other ways to process grief, to heal. She tells us that if she could talk to her younger self she’d tell her, “Don’t worry so much. I worried when Mam was sick. I worried about Dad. I’d love to tell her to not worry so much. We’re going to get through this.” She has this gift for us too: “When we know we’re not alone, people can get through the hardest things.” Carmel Breathnach is a freelance writer, born in Ireland and living in Portland, Oregon. She holds a B.A. degree in English literature and Irish language studies from NUI Maynooth, and a Graduate Diploma in Education with honors from St. Patrick’s College, Dublin. Carmel writes regularly on the themes of childhood grief and mother loss. Her work has appeared in The Irish Times, Huffington Post, Upworthy, Scary Mommy, Voice Catcher, Modern Loss, Pendemic.ie, The Good Men Project, the anthology Hidden Lights: A Collection of Truths Not Often Told and on the National Alliance for Children's Grief (NACG) website. Carmel is currently querying her memoir titled Briefly I Knew My Mother.