As hard as it was, I still went to visit Mum's grave with flowers and it provided some comfort. Now, five years later, on Mother's Day I do the same. I still miss Mum every day but I want people facing their first Mother's Day after losing their mum to know you are not alone and there are things you can do to help cope with the overwhelming grief.
The continual contribution and addition to London's culture, that living breathing creature that is constantly evolving, makes us who we are. The answer to the hatred and division we saw this week cannot possibly be more hate and division. Surely love and unity can be the only antidote. That, and a strong cup of tea.
It's important on Mother's Day that we recognise the contribution that mother's make to the UK economy, both in terms of their place in the labour market and the value of their investment in the UK workforce through paid and unpaid care. Yet we know that since last Mother's Day, according to the government's own estimates, 54,000 mums have been forced out of work due to maternity discrimination.
Plenty of people will tell you that you're 'strong' and 'brave,' that 'you have to get on and kick cancer's butt'. But underneath all this fighting talk, you might be just plain scared. We want you to know that we didn't feel brave. We felt there was never any choice but to go on.
The whole experience is a bit like climbing a mountain on which un-foretold difficulties continue to arise. These can be as small as stubbing a metaphorical toe, or as big as a ten-tonne boulder hurtling it's unforgivingly stony way towards you, Indiana Jones style, just as you are reaching for your hat.
After all, a lack of diversity and constant discrimination makes our society weaker. Confronting and addressing our prejudices and unconscious bias would make us richer as people - less quick to judge, more ready to embrace and understand others.
Seven years ago I watched a friend play roller derby and decided to have a go. I fully expected that I would try it out, then promptly give it up and chuck my skates into the cupboard with discarded musical instruments. But somehow I found myself hooked.
Line of Duty has carried a fearsome reputation from series to series and has improved each time. Now it is stepping out of the shadows of BBC Two, it will soon become the talk of the nation and any adulation that it receives will be much deserved. Just make sure that you're not the one that misses it.
What do you do when the injuries you experience from your child are more than accidents or the usual, though challenging, toddler tantrums? What if it is actual violence? Violence that is daily, unleashed by the slightest perceived provocation, personal and sustained, hitting and screaming, verbal and physical abuse that bruises and injures body and eventually mind?
What I know is that the man who did this is no more representative of British Muslims than the man who killed Jo was representative of white men from Yorkshire. Both were extremists, both were terrorists and both should be judged for what they did, not what religion they professed.
It's just one week on from the launch of DEC's East Africa Crisis Appeal and we have been completely overwhelmed by the incredible response from the British public. We've also had generous donations from the UK government, trusts and companies and many high profile figures, including the Queen and Prince Charles. To date, a staggering £32 million has been raised for East Africa... Sadly, though the scale of this response also reflects the severity of the situation; hunger is looming on a massive scale across East Africa.
As Sadiq Khan said this week," Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism. We stand together in the face of those who seek to harm us and destroy our way of life. We always have, and we always will." Until the day I die, I will always be proud to have been mayor of this wonderful city and its people.
We found that around half of us (49%) reported experiencing anxiety specifically in relation to the US election and following inauguration of Donald Trump as president, with 29% going as far as saying they have experienced a 'fair amount' or 'great deal' of anxiety.
Nimko Ali is a writer, FGM campaigner and co-founder of Daughters of Eve. Here, as part of The Huffington Post UK's All Women Everywhere project, Nimko vlogs on her experience of FGM and on coming to terms with being a survivor.
As a British Muslim woman I often fear that the backlash of such terrorist incidents will put me in a hugely vulnerable position, as a target for Islamophobic and racist attacks. I have been subject to many in the past, and it makes me feel very uncomfortable knowing that my choice of wearing the hijab makes me a very visible and obvious target.
As a millennial, the reality of reaching what we consider to be adulthood feels a world away from what was promised. We believed that working hard, educating ourselves and managing our money would lead to success.
Violent ideology knows not one skin tone, not one religion and not one nation. We will overcome this evil bit by bit, with each everyday errand and ordinary activity that passes. We will overcome this evil - and we will do it without 'useful' idiots like Katie Hopkins.
Perhaps if this was discussed more in the public eye, the Northern Irish peace process could move on to a stronger sense of everyone's aspirations being equal. That way too, mistakes of the past are less likely to happen again.
Don't get me wrong: Often it's okay to play the Child Card. But don't abuse it. Don't think that because life is so difficult for you as a parent, non-parents are obliged to make your life easier. I'll let you decide the date and place we meet. I won't comment on you turning up an hour late. But it's because I'm being nice, not because I owe it to you.
In today's political climate we need, more than ever, to get our stories out there. We need a forum where we can normalize our lifestyle without fear of erasure or dilution, because if we don't exist on in visual media then how can we promote, propel and prioritise our very existence in real life?
On this particular occasion we had invited someone else who was suffering into the fold. The former England captain and widowed father of three, Rio Ferdinand, was joining us to find out more about how we processed our loss and helped our kids through theirs.
On Mother's Day last year, I remember being so excited for the future. I was hopeful that despite not yet being pregnant, it was imminent. It would be my last year without being a mother, or at least an expectant mother. If only it was that simple.