Ashley Judd Remembers Mom Naomi Judd as She Celebrates First Birthday Without Her

etonline.com:

Ashley Judd celebrated her 55th birthday on Wednesday with a lengthy tribute to her late mother, Naomi Judd. This year was Ashley's first birthday since her mother died by suicide at age 76 in April 2022. «My birthday.

Everyone who loves me is making it as soft (cake in bed) and precious as they can, as my mind can't help but calculate that on my last birthday, Mom was a scant 11 days from her death by crushing suicide,» Ashely wrote on Instagram.Shortly after Naomi's death, Ashley shared that she was the one who found her mother, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and later had to be the person who broke the news to Naomi's husband, Larry Strickland. «So it is my first without her,» she continued on Wednesday.

She paired the caption with a photo of Naomi's handwritten baby announcement following Ashley's birth in 1968. «During my birthday at some point she would glow, patting my arm, 'you were brown when you came out, surprised me so, and the sweetest, easiest baby....how I loved you, I had to swat peoples` hands, they wanted to touch you,' and patter on about my baby stories.

I hope all parents do that for their children on their birthdays.»A post shared by Ashley Judd (@ashley_judd)Ashley went on to remember the many ways Naomi celebrated birthdays: «picnics, running charades, Smoky Mountains, conversations about parenting ('when we know better, we do better') social issues, & laughter scatter like sunlight in my memory.»As Ashley wrote, Naomi died less than two weeks after her younger daughter's birthday. «Last year's, as you might imagine, was more muted, being so close to her end,» Ashley wrote. «Pop and she came over with a roast chicken and cornbread, and we shared a small meal, the 3 of us.