Reuniting With My Mom After Five Years

The softness of Sitges helped heal our broken relationship

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There’s a kind of light in Sitges that has a unique character. It dances on the Mediterranean, shifts across the whitewashed facades, and filters through the palm trees that line the passeig (promenade). It’s the kind of light that makes you slow down, breathe deeply, and feel, just for a moment — still.

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This location had been hand-picked, the calm we’d need for a difficult reuniting. It was a much anticipated trip. I would meet my mom for the first time since I left home — on impossible terms — five years prior. It would mark the first time my mother would lay eyes on my gorgeous girls, the first time my daughters would meet their grandma.

We arrived by train, the sea having teased us through the windows as we curved north along the coast of Catalunya. The air smelled of salt and citrus blossoms, an almost jasmine-like scent, and as soon as we stepped out, we felt that unmistakable Sitges energy — bohemian, elegant, soft.

This little Catalan town has been seducing artists, writers, and wanderers for over a century, and within minutes…