This article draws on interviews with women who experienced the death of their mothers during early childhood to explore the grieving process of a child for a lost parent. The author describes the women's recollections of how the loss was talked about, or not, in their families and how this impacted the women's mourning and coping. Most women who lost their mothers in early childhood had not resolved their grief. Women whose mourning was unresolved had experienced "walls of silence" (Bowlby, 1990) around the death and had felt pressure to care and comfort others who grieved, and they often idealized their mothers. In contrast, women whose mourning was resolved had experienced more open, supportive communication at the time of the death, which permitted asking questions, sharing information, and ultimately coming to terms with the loss.