Many times. A glance of someone passing, the smell of a perfume as someone walks by, a commercial of someone in a certain blouse. There are a thousand memories just waiting to be discovered and relived. At first it is a jolt as you say. After a while it is a relief because you know you will never forget.

Oh, sure. I always get little aftershocks of the tremendous anxiety I felt from October, 2006 to January 2007 when my brother took ill and died. The "fight or flight" syndrome, me wanting to run away, then feeling guilty for that, and standing fast., to watch my brother shrink down to nothing in horrible, agonizing pain. Knowing there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it except cry, and pray for some kind of absolution, Lord make him better, or, Lord take him. Being glad that it was him laying there in the hospital bed and not me, and then feeling horribly guilty about feeling that way.

I try to relax, calm myself down, sink into that dark place, stew for a moment there, and then move on.

Oh my ....it happens to me so much, for example just last night I was laying in bed (I sleep in my moms bed that she slept in when she was here with me) and suddenly I happened to notice just the way I was laying...on my right side....the shock was that it was exactly how my Mom used to lay...exactly. It wasn't so much shock for me as it was in a way a reminder that my Mama is in me, even in the way that I lay in bed. While that for me was kind of a happy memory, there are some that have been more painful or plain out just a coarse reminder to me that my sweet mom is gone.
My heart goes out to you...I do know how hard it is when you lose your Mom.
Hugs to you
xxx

I still have my Mom's sippy cups too. ha The ones I bought have little bears etched on the plastic. She would drink her coffee in them when she was bed-bound.

My loss is recent (09/25/10) -- when I come across something that I know I can't bear to look at constantly, I put it in an envelope called "later" (usually it's something she wrote). I'll deal with it later. I can't throw away her last grocery list right now that was sitting on the kitchen table. Little notes she left around the house, one or two I can't make sense of ... but I keep them.

And like you there are times where it just hits me. I went to a grievance support group - and they had some donuts out. I don't eat donuts unless they are just around. Then I saw the jelly donut. My Mom had requested me to get her jelly donuts when she couldn't shop for herself. Then they showed a video. The video had a picture of a little oldfashioned stop watch in it. Looks exactly like the one in the drawer where my Mom had stashed my father's belongings after he died in 1999.

There are many other instances. Some trigger good memories, other trigger not-so-good-ones.

For me, what has helped is watching VIDEOS of my brother when he was alive and (reasonably) well. Pictures are nice to look at, but they don't do him full justice as hearing the soothing sound of his voice, which was and always will be such a comfort to my soul.

Originally, I thought watching videos of him would be painful, but quite the opposite has happened! It's so soothing hearing that voice, almost as if he could walk in the door anytime and say "whassup, Mikee?"

Thanks to all for sharing. What's strange is when I see that sip cup in my cupboard, I remember but it doesn't trigger the memory shock that happened recently, as I posted above.

Jules, I, too, sleep in the bed that was my Mom's. What's more, I sleep just inches from where her hospital bed was (i.e. where she died); ironically, I'm never afraid. But there are moments when I notice myself doing / saying things Mama did. Bound to happen.

Koolman, I did just that: At the suggestion of one of Mama's Aides, I bought those disposable movie cams - sound included. Three, as a matter of fact. My Dad was simultaneous in nursing home, so I added some clips of him on one, too. In Dad's case, he was still pretty good. Mama - it was not so good - except for one disc where she sang with me, talked - even asked me what I wanted for dinner. There are times when I know I can't watch them - and times I need to. I'm so afraid they will get damaged and so afraid to have them duplicated for fear they might get accidentally erased in the process!

No, I haven't had that happen but it's all still very new with me....my mom died just three days ago and it was a sudden death.

Thanks for the warning, though...............I can see that I have a long journey ahead and I am only beginning it.