"Mother's Day isn't a real holiday." I have always said this and always believed this but that is because I have a mother. So, for me, every day is Mother's Day. But to some, like my mom, they don't get to talk to their mother every day, send her random presents, or make jokes about how it is a Hallmark-inspired holiday.

My mom is my best friend. She is the one I call when I am frustrated at work or when something hilarious happens to me. She is the one that is always honest with me and can always tell when I am lying. She taught me to save every Walmart plastic bag because trash bags are a waste of money, that not every baby is a cute baby and that it is okay to not follow one path. My mother has supported me from the day I decided that I wanted to be a princess at the age of 4 to the day I decided I am going to work at Walt Disney World. The day I moved four hours away to live with my boyfriend, my mom promised that I was always welcomed back home and has never wavered on that promise.

I am so lucky to have her as a mom, I just wish she had the same. I have known my mom for 22 years, she knew hers for 16. For most of those 16 years, she knew a sick mom. A mom who needed her daughters to take care of her and to be strong for her; that isn't fair. Most of us get to know our moms for the majority of our lives. They are there to send us off to college, to see us marry the man of our dreams and to become a mother ourselves. Yet, instead of having a Sweet 16 birthday party, my mom was saying goodbye to her best friend. She had to realize in that moment that her mother wouldn't meet her husband or her children. She wouldn't be there to help guide her or for her to call her and ask for parenting advice. She won't be there.

Every day is hard for my mom, knowing she can't just pick up the phone and call her mother. But once a year, she has to see everyone celebrating their mother and how lucky they are to have her in their lives. She is forced to go through this day like she isn't sad or doesn't miss her mom because they won't understand. I don't understand. I consider myself so incredibly grateful that I do not know what she has been through but my heart still aches knowing she has nobody to send flowers or cute cards to.

My mom is one of the greatest people you could meet, which makes me believe that her mom was just as amazing. I wish so much that her mother could have seen the mom she has become because she would be so proud.

Thanks, Mom, for being the best mom I could have dreamt of. Thank you for never letting your mother's death decide what kind of mother you would become and thank you for always loving me.

For so many years, you have been so strong on Mother's Day and have never shown your pain or sadness. But I want you to know that it is okay for you to be sad. It is okay for you to miss your mother because you did not deserve to lose her 38 years ago.

You deserve the world and I wish you could share it with your mother but I am so glad I get to share it with mine.