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About the Series
Throughout the process, the mothers are writing mummy manuals to advise loved ones on how they want their family to live when they are no longer there, guiding them on everything from schooling, health, relationships and even sex education. The mothers find themselves facing all the usual parenting dilemmas, often years in advance, as they try to envisage what they would be saying to their children if they were still there to do so. Even the most trivial domestic scenario suddenly takes on an extraordinary significance.
The mothers are also creating poignant memory boxes so that their children can maintain a relationship with them from beyond the grave. They are filling them with photos and mementos to help remind their children of happy times and to help the very youngest have some knowledge of their mother. Some of the mums are also writing letters and notes to their children and one is writing a letter to be read out at her funeral.
Guiding them through the process is Julie Stokes, a clinical psychologist and founder of child bereavement charity Winston's Wish. Julie helps the children and parents to talk about and face the possibility of death and gives the children challenges to help them express their emotions. In addition to helping the mothers with the mummy manuals and memory boxes, Julie also helps some of the younger children understand what is happening to them through play and toys.
The series takes the viewer well beyond the obvious sadness into the very private worlds of children coping with serious illness and bereavement. Ultimately you are left with the reassurance that for these families the relationship between a mother and a child is underpinned by unconditional love. This love never dies.
