Her efforts resulted in the widely popular Motherless Daughters.
With the publication of the book came a flood of letters from women who wanted to share their own experiences with Edelman.
In response, Edelman has compiled many of these letters into the compact Letters from Motherless Daughters. The purpose of this book is to show the many ways in which women have come to deal with their tragic losses.
After reading letter upon letter, I too realized something that she claimed she was at first unaware of: one never gets over the loss of an important person. All one can do is either choose to mourn and dwell on the past, or choose to grow from the loss and continue on with life.
Many of the letters are poignant, while others are heart-wrenching. Yet others display a true sense of courage, while some reflect the confusion and agony that has invaded the daughter's life.
Reading such letters is beneficial to a certain degree--they open one's eyes to the bitter reality of dealing with death, and they allow one to see that others have also experiences similar feelings.
Although these letters do serve a crucial purpose, they are only letters. Nothing can truly dissipate the trauma of enduring the loss of a mother--it is something that no one can ever be fully prepaired for.
Letters from Motherless Daughters is a book whose value has to be discovered by the person reading it.
