The pain of losing a loved one, especially a parent, is often felt for many years after a loss. It's a pain all too familiar to actress and TV personality Pearl Thusi.
Taking to Instagram recently, Pearl opened up about the pain of losing her mom in a heartbreaking message.
Posting a picture of herself at her mother's tombstone, Pearl wrote: "This is a part of my world I never share. But today I felt compelled to share a message. I see how people take their moms for granted sometimes and my heart breaks. This is where my mother rests. And the most I can do now is to clean this cold surface that lies there in her memory."
Pearl reveals that her biggest wish is to have her mom back.
"I know she's watching over me but I would love to have her back. I'd do anything. For her to be back and my daughter to meet her grandmother."
Pearl says that losing her mom was "like an intense and vivid nightmare that still has not ended."
"I'm still waiting to wake up and tell her about it. I want to call her and tell her how he broke my heart. How I've met someone. What happened at work. Cook together. Laugh together. Cry together. But it will never happen," she added.