When it comes to honouring mothers, the conversation is naturally directed towards biological mothers. But as someone who was raised by their grandmother since birth, I’ve always been hyper-aware that maternal figures take many forms.

Due to chronic mental health illnesses, my biological parents were unable to raise me. So at the age of 52, and as a single mother herself, my paternal grandmother offered to take me in and raise me as her own after a lengthy court battle to gain legal guardianship over me.

Despite adopting the mother role in my life, my grandmother always encouraged me to have a relationship with my mum and my mother’s side of the family. Growing up I attended family gatherings on my mother’s side and had occasional monitored meetings with my mum. But even with this I still felt a disconnect with my biological mother.