32. What If Mother’s Day Is Painful for Me? With Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Maureen Wittels

Mother’s Day has great intentions behind it: taking a day out of
the year to celebrate our moms and all the things they do for us.
But for many people, for many reasons, that can be a painful
proposition. Mother’s Day became extremely difficult for
Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Maureen Wittels when Harris Wittels,
Maureen’s son and Stephanie’s brother, died of a heroin overdose
in 2015. In the years since, Stephanie and Maureen have learned
to redefine this holiday so they can simultaneously honor
Harris's life and celebrate their family as it exists today. They
tell Claire the various ways they’ve gotten through Mother’s Day
over the years and share advice for those in similar situations.


 


Resources from the show


Read Stephanie’s memoir, “Everything Is Horrible and
Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love, and Loss”



Read Claire’s memoir, “The Rules of Inheritance” 



 


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