In the dusty attic space, the woman discovered the small, neatly covered and hidden forgotten gift. In it was a tidily folded dress for the baby along with a worn ribbon along with a personal note. The letter was brief but heartbreaking.
“For the daughter I never got to raise.”
In shock, she was able to see the truth. She was a sister to an older one who was born dead and a child that who her parents did not talk about. The revelation explains the sombre grief she observed in her mother as well as the incessant silence that would linger every time conversations turned to the past.
It was a painful experience, but however, provided the possibility of clarity. “It felt like meeting a part of my family I never knew existed,” she said. “Like I suddenly understood a piece of my mother’s heart she kept hidden.”
Psychologists say that many parents experiencing loss of a child opt for silence to deal with the loss, preventing them and their children from having to go back and revisit the grief. As this article suggests, these memories typically are kept in tiny tokens like clothes and letters or other things that are kept secretly.
The tale of The Forgotten Gift has resonated extensively on social media, with a lot of people posting their personal stories of finding family stories that are full of loss and grief.
For her, this box was much not just a memento to be kept in a drawer; it served as a link to the sister she didn’t know as well as a remembrance of the unwavering, defiant affection her mother showed throughout her lifetime.
