On top of my wife's passing in July, I lost my mom last week due to a long battle with a dementia-related disease. If anything positive came out of my wife's passing, it was to help me better prepare my dad and help him through his grief as a caregiver.
Oh no, I'm so sorry about your mom. That's awful. This is my first experience with *real* grief, I lost my grandmas when I was 13, a close friend died when we were in our twenties, but somehow none of that in any way prepared to lose a parent. I really need my mom to stick around for a long time.