I’ve often heard people describe losing your mother as something akin to losing your tether to this mortal world. If that was the case, my mother passing would be the third time I had felt that. The first was when I was 25 and my grandmother passed away. She was the mother who raised me in Tonga as a newborn until I was 5. The second time was when I was in my mid 30’s and my birth mother passed away. I never had a chance to meet her. I spoke to her briefly on the phone once when my son was born.