When Sara Wollner and Katie Riggins were little and something would go wrong, their mother would tell them to “laugh about it and keep moving”.
After her death in July last year, her advice has never been more relevant.
The two sisters from the US have gone viral for their “chaotic” but “awesome” process for grieving the loss of their late mother.
Posting a video on TikTok, which now has more than 20 million views, the sisters, Sara Wollner and Katie Riggins shared “confessions to our dead mom” between fits of laughter and tears of joy.
Some of the confessions the sisters share include how they didn’t realise they had to file their mum’s taxes after she passed.
They also shared the story of how Riggins drove “an uninsured car” for seven months after her mum’s death because she didn’t know she had to organise her own insurance policy. It meant their mum’s licence plates were suspended.
“We know you had the same licence plate for years, so R.I.P. to ‘AZK’ or whatever the numbers were,” Wollner said.
“And to you, mom,” Riggins replied.
Their stories and “confessions” are at times hard to understand through their crying-laughter, showing grief can come in many different ways for different people.
Wollner also apologised to her mum for not crying at her funeral.
“I was so pregnant that if I cried, I would have thrown up,” she said, causing the sisters to erupt with laughter.
Wollner and Riggins apologised and said there would be “lots more to come”.
“We’ll continue to disappoint you as time goes on, catch ya next time,” Riggins said.
The video attracted more than 39,000 comments, with many appreciating the sisters’ raw but “joyful” grief process.
“Thank you, I needed this laugh,” one person commented.
“I lost my mom over a year and a half ago and I’ve been very depressed BUT seeing this video and your perspective is so refreshing and heartwarming,” another wrote.
“I love this way people are able to grieve,” a third said.
‘We are women. Hear us roar.’
Wollner and Riggins spoke with the American news outlet Today about their “hysterical and healing” process following the death of their mother, 63-year-old Karen.
Their mum, nicknamed “Kare” or “Crazy Karen”, died from pancreatic cancer in Albany, New York.
“We called her ‘Crazy Karen’ because she always had a comeback and she loved to poke fun at herself,” Wollner told TODAY.com.
Wollner and Riggins lost their father when they were young, so Kare raised the girls on her own.
“It was us girls against the world,” Riggins told TODAY.com.
“When something bad happened, Karen would say, ‘Let’s laugh about it and keep it moving.’ Our family motto was, ‘We are women, hear us roar’.”