For Mother’s Day, J.K. Rowling Has A Reminder For Those Whose Moms Are Not Around Anymore

J.K. Rowling recently shared a touching post for those whose mothers are not physically present anymore. The Harry Potter author encouraged them to “do something nice” for themselves on Mother’s Day. She pinned the tweet to the top of her account.

Today's Mother's Day in the UK. If your mum isn't here to treat, do something nice for yourself, because she's part of you. Take a hug, too?

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 6, 2016

The tweet is not only directed to Rowling’s followers in the U.K. who celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday. The reminder will prove helpful as well to those in other countries that will celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May.

The creator of the world’s popular bespectacled wizard penned the tweet from her own experience. Her mom, Anne, passed away in 1990 at the age of 45 because of complications from multiple sclerosis. The bestselling author considers her mother’s death as an “enormous shock” because she appeared healthy.

She previously opened up about her mother’s diagnosis when she sat as the guest editor of BBC Radio 4 show, Woman’s Hour.

“She was very fit, she was a non-smoker, non-drinker, and I say all of this because of course then for her to be diagnosed at 35 with an illness that would kill her was just the most enormous shock to us and everyone who knew her.”

Rowling found it difficult to deal with the diagnosis at first because her mother was such an active person. By the time Anne was diagnosed, her condition was already deteriorating. Five years after the diagnosis, she started relying on her wheelchair to move around.

The British novelist wished her mother got the chance to see how successful Harry Potter turned out.

“My mother was a passionate reader, and she would have been excited whatever I did, if I succeeded at anything, but particularly to be a writer, she would have considered to be a very valuable thing but she never knew about Harry Potter – I started writing it six months before she died, so that is painful. I wish she’d known.”

Rowling claimed that she wept every time she wrote things about her mother. The author then became determined to help sufferers of the degenerative disease. In 2010, she donated £10 million ($14.2 million) to help Edinburgh University build a new center focused on unraveling the mysteries behind the disease.

The Scotland-based clinic was later launched in 2013 bearing the name of Rowling’s late mother, as the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic. The facility aspires to become a leader not just in multiple sclerosis studies, but also in researches that delve into other incurable neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases.

Multiple sclerosis cases affect about 100,000 people in the U.K. Scotland is noted as one of the two countries with higher prevalence of the disease. The disease affects myelin, the protective layer of the brain’s nerve cells, and leads to several symptoms such as tingling sensations, numbness, and fatigue. The exact cause is not yet determined.

Apart from losing her mother at an early age, Rowling is also commended by fans for exhibiting strength of character despite her previous hardships as a single mom.

35. Remember Harry Potter? The author, J.K Rowling became the world's best-selling author, despite managing on benefits as a single mother.

— Adedapo Treasure (@AdedapoTreasure) May 13, 2015

Harry Potter's J. K. Rowling was a penniless, depressed, divorced, single mother, attending school while writing her novels. #KeepGoing

— Deb Scott, BA, CPC, REALTOR (@GreenSkyDeb) January 25, 2015

[Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]