Mother’s day will never be the same

Andrea talks about the impact having a missing loved one can have on special days, in this case, Mother’s Day. Andrea’s daughter, Georgina, has been missing since 2018.

My name is Andrea, and I am the mother of Georgina Gharsallah who has been missing from home for just over one year [at the time of writing this]. Georgina was 30 years old when she went to the shops near my house in Worthing, Sussex, and simply never came home.

Georgina is a wonderful daughter and sister and a mother to two young boys who are just 9 and 8 years old. They are desperately confused about where she has gone.  In the beginning, when she disappeared, we just told them ‘Mummy’s not here at the moment’ but as the weeks went on we had to say, ‘Mummy is missing and we don’t know where she is or what’s happened to her but we are looking, the police are looking, we are all looking for her’. I don’t think they understood it very much but as it got to two or three months, I was amazed at how much they had taken it in. They would ask ‘Is mummy missing? ‘Am I ever going to see mummy again?’ and I couldn’t say ‘Yes, you are’ so I just had to be honest, because if we never find her I would have given them false hope.

Georgina loved Mother’s Day, she always gave me a very beautiful card, with specially chosen words. This year, it’s all about my two grandsons and them being without their mummy and how that will impact them. We want to find ways to keep talking and thinking of her as much as possible, so we will light our candles of hope and make a card. It’s vital that they keep their mummy forever in their heart and at the forefront of their minds.

For me I will have a part of me missing on Mother’s Day, the second of my four children. Georgina has a beautiful heart, so caring kind and giving.

She is so missed.