Dear Mom
First of all, happy birthday! Normally at this time, we would be sleepily gathering around the speaker phone to call and sing as off-key to you as possible.
Secondly, we miss you.
It's been a rough seven months since you passed, both for our family and for the world. I think I only have just started the process of grieving you because there've been so many other things to go through along the way. If I am being honest, I have had some anger because of the way your affairs were left and the messes I have had to clean up, but I understand that it was difficult for you to do anything differently. I also feel incredibly lucky to be able to put work on hold while I handle things.
But mostly, we just miss you.