ABSTRACT
The previous chapter highlighted the importance for my research participants of maintaining in contact with their absent daughters and sons across geographical distances. I argued that this indicated a desire for the affirmation of a maternal identity. However, and unlike representations of the mother figure previously discussed, I also suggested that the lives of the women I interviewed did not remain static once their children left home. In this chapter therefore I explore what these women did next. In other words I reflect on my participants’ experiences post-separation from their adult children, investigate their life circumstances, and consider the chances and choices that were available to them once they successfully mothered their children to adulthood and experienced them leave home.
