On Sunday, May 10, 2020, veteran Hollywood star Angelina Jolie remembered her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand.
Jolie’s parent died in 2007 at the age of 56 after a fight with ovarian cancer, and on Mother’s Day, the movie star penned an emotional tribute to her.
“I lost my mother in my thirties”, wrote Jolie. “When I look back to that time, I can see how much her death changed me. It was not sudden, but so much shifted inside. Losing a mother’s love and warm, soft embrace is like having someone rip away a protective blanket.”
The actress recalled how her mother’s split her father, actor Jon Voight, put a halt on Bertrand’s acting career and forced her to face motherhood.
When my father had an affair, it changed her life. It set her dream of family life ablaze. But she still loved being a mother. Her dreams of being an actor faded as she found herself, at the age of 26, raising two children with a famous ex who would cast a long shadow on her life. After she died, I found a video of her acting in a short film. She was good. It was all possible for her.”
Years after her mother’s death, Jolie got a tattoo on her right hand (it was of the letter ‘W’). It was a reference to the Rolling Stones song Winter, which Bertrand sang to Jolie as a baby.
According to the Maleficent star, though the tattoo faded over the years, it helped her during a time she was going through her own loss.
On Mother’s Day, Jolie wrote:
This Mother’s Day, I think of refugee mothers I have met, living in poverty and displacement. Every one began her journey of motherhood with a promise to do all she could to protect her child. To lay down her life if necessary. And if she is defeated and silenced, few things are more tragic. Through refugees, I’ve come to believe that a mother is the strongest person on earth. The softness of her skin is deceptive. She is a force driven by love and loyalty. There is no one who solves more problems.
When she has only love to give, it pours from her soul. When a mother comes to you for help and you do not provide it, she may weep. But she will never give up. When you deny her child safety and shelter, she may seek it in a hostile land where her body is vulnerable to abuse. Her heart will be sick with loss. But she will fight on for her child. Because she is a mother.”
