The impact of Peg Conway's mother's death, when she was just 7, reverberated through her life, impacting her sense of safety, her reactivity and her sense of alienation. Maybe even more than the loss, the failure of her family to keep her mother alive for her created a gaping hole in her. It also resulted in the loss of ongoing connection with her mother's family when her father remarried. It wasn't until Peg gave herself permission to deeply explore her own grief and who her mother had been that she was able to find that connection again. In the process she came to understand not just her own story, but the stories of everyone in her family, including her father and siblings. Most importantly, she came to know her mother.