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Ashley and Wynonna Judd remembered their late mother on Mothers Day (May 8), marking the first one without Naomi Judd with them. Wynonna, who was also Naomi’s duo partner in The Judds, shared a sweet photo of Naomi with her two daughters during childhood. She simply captioned: “I miss her.”
“My beloved mother & I shared often with each other about how fraught & dangerous motherhood is, & what can & should be done. Our first Mother’s Day without her, some of my raw reflections,” Ashley wrote in a tweet, sharing a link to an opinion piece she wrote for USA TODAY, published on Friday (May 6). Ashley wrote that on Mother’s Day, she was supposed to visit Naomi and give her a box of candy, keeping with family tradition. “We were supposed to have sweet delight in each others’ easy presence. Instead, I am unmoored,” Ashley wrote, in part. “But my heart is not empty. It is replete with gratitude for what she left behind. Her nurture and tenderness, her music and memory. …My mama was a legend.”
Naomi, an award-winning country music legend, passed away on April 30. She was 76. Ashley and Wynonna announced that afternoon: “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”
The following day, The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame — along with Eddie Bayers, Ray Charles and Pete Drake — during an emotional ceremony, remembering Naomi. Wynonna, who was set to go on The Final Tour with Naomi later this year, noted during the May 1 induction, “It’s a very strange dynamic to be this broken and this blessed.” She promised that, despite being heartbroken over the loss of her mother, she “will continue to sing.” See Ashley and Wynonna's tweets below: