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From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n
Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRead more<\/span><\/svg><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA new mother has spoken of the profound grief she feels that her own mother never met her baby, describing it as “really cruel that she didn\u2019t get to be a grandmother” and lamenting that the chance to “share that motherhood journey together was ripped away”. Despite the heartache, a supportive community of “motherless mothers” has provided her with strength.<\/p>\n
Seona Wells, 34, from Aberdeen, welcomed her daughter Mara into the world in June 2025. However, the joy of new parenthood has been inextricably linked with the sorrow of losing her mother, Christina, to cancer in November 2024.<\/p>\n
Christina, who was 58, received a diagnosis of a rare, aggressive sarcoma in March 2024. The family quickly learned the cancer was untreatable, and Christina spent her final months receiving palliative care.<\/p>\n
“We were so close, we spoke every day, my mum and I \u2013 it just feels unbelievable that she has never met my daughter,” Seona told PA Real Life, adding, “It doesn\u2019t seem possible.”<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Seona and Christina swimming together (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nWhen Christina\u2019s diagnosis came, Seona and her now-husband Scott were in the midst of planning their wedding for summer 2025. They had already considered starting a family after the wedding, but Christina\u2019s illness brought their future plans into sharp focus. They brought their wedding forward to July 2024, ensuring Christina could be there to celebrate with them, and soon after, they began trying for a baby.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t know how much time she was going to have or if she would ever get the chance to know that I would be a mum, let alone meet her grandchild,” Seona explained. “I couldn\u2019t really imagine becoming a mother without her.”<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Seona conceived in time to share the news with Christina, just three weeks before her mother passed away.<\/p>\n
“That was a very hard time, because I was going through the first trimester, with sickness and things, and then I was also trying to nurse my mum with my family,” she recalled. “She was at home at that point, she wanted to die at home. We\u2019re a very close family, I have two younger brothers, and we were all there with her.”<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Christina holding newborn Seona (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSharing her pregnancy news with her family, even in its early stages, created a complex emotional landscape. “It was just such a weird time, because it\u2019s supposed to be really happy news,” Seona said. “I think for them\u2026 it kind of gave a bit of hope\u2026 (Mum) was so happy to find out that I was pregnant.”<\/p>\n
Even in her final days, heavily medicated, Christina\u2019s joy was evident. “When she was on quite a lot of pain medication, near the end, she was still kind of booping my tummy if I was standing next to her,” Seona added. “She literally would smile and say aloud \u2018I know what\u2019s in there\u2019 when she booped my tummy.”<\/p>\n
While Seona is “so happy” she could share the news with her mother, she feels it will “just never be enough.”<\/p>\n
“It just feels so cruel: could she not have lived long enough to have met my daughter, become a grandmother herself? She\u2019d always wanted that,” she expressed. “She was one of these women that just loved children. She was actually a neonatal nurse herself, so she\u2019d had this career of looking after babies\u2026 It just feels really cruel that she didn\u2019t get to be a grandmother and look after her own grandchild.”<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Christina with Seona as toddler (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSeona had always envisioned sharing the journey of motherhood with her mum. “I\u2019d always looked forward so much to that point in our lives, where we could share that motherhood journey together, and it just was ripped away.”<\/p>\n
Following her mother\u2019s death, Seona found solace in her strong support network, including her brothers, father, husband, friends, and crucially, her mother\u2019s close friends. “She had a lot of female friends that were kind of almost like aunties to me, and that\u2019s been so important,” she said. “I feel like I\u2019ve got all these aunties that are looking out for me, and that\u2019s just because of who my mum was. She had these people that loved her so much that they are still looking out for me\u2026 that kind of feels like that\u2019s still her looking out for me, in a way.”<\/p>\n
While grateful for this extensive support and access to grief counselling, Seona also sought connection with others who understood her unique experience. She discovered The Motherless Mothers, a community for women navigating similar loss or estrangement, finding “having that peer support has been immensely valuable.”<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s just full of women looking after each other, looking out for other women that have been through very similar things,” Seona added. “And even though everyone\u2019s got a unique motherless mother story\u2026 you\u2019ll say something \u2013 if something\u2019s been a bit triggering, or you\u2019ve had a bad day \u2013 and there\u2019s just instantly a bunch of women who know exactly how you feel, and are quick to respond.”<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Seona and her husband Scott, with newborn Mara (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSeona maintains near-constant contact with The Motherless Mothers through their WhatsApp groups. The community also provides free, one-to-one counselling with qualified British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy counsellors, alongside other resources and free drop-in sessions.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes speaking to someone who\u2019s in that exact, weirdly specific situation to understand how you\u2019re feeling, I think is really helpful,” Seona noted. “It\u2019s just that solidarity, it makes you feel less lonely \u2013 because it is a very lonely thing, having a child without your mum there, that\u2019s how I felt. Everything is kind of bittersweet.”<\/p>\n
Seona strives to “let the joy in” and remember “it\u2019s OK to be happy,” though she admits every milestone in her baby\u2019s life is tinged with sadness. She also draws strength from the knowledge that her mother, Christina, was herself a motherless mother. Christina\u2019s mother died of cancer at 60, when Christina was 33. Seona reflects, “I think about that so much now \u2013 my mum was going through the same thing, just with older children.”<\/p>\n
“I remember having such a great childhood and such a loving mother, and I understand now, I think, exactly what she must have been going through,” she said. “She managed to do it, she was strong, she managed to show up and be this incredible mother to us.”<\/p>\n
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open image in gallery<\/span><\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>Seona and her daughter Mara (Collect\/PA Real Life)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nSeona\u2019s ultimate goal is to honour her mother\u2019s legacy: “One of the ways of trying to honour my mum is just to try and be as good a mum to my daughter as she was to me.”<\/p>\n
The Motherless Mothers is a UK charity dedicated to supporting women raising children without their own mothers, offering online and in-person community spaces. Further information and support can be accessed via their website: www.themotherlessmothers.com<\/u>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference. Read more A new mother has spoken of the profound grief she feels that her own mother never met her baby, describing it as “really cruel that she didn\u2019t get to be a grandmother” and lamenting that the chance to “share that motherhood journey together was ripped away”. Despite the heartache, a supportive community of “motherless mothers” has provided her with strength. Seona Wells, 34, from Aberdeen, welcomed her daughter Mara into the world in June 2025. However, the joy of new parenthood has been inextricably linked with the sorrow of losing her mother, Christina, to cancer in November 2024. Christina, who was 58, received a diagnosis of a rare, aggressive sarcoma in March 2024. The family quickly learned the cancer was untreatable, and Christina spent her final months receiving palliative care. “We were so close, we spoke every day, my mum and I \u2013 it just feels unbelievable that she has never met my daughter,” Seona told PA Real Life, adding, “It doesn\u2019t seem possible.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}