Erica Bracken: 'My foundation as I knew it changed forever when my mother died'

Two years ago, Erica Bracken’s mum tragically passed away on a West Cork beach. As her brother, Sam, today runs 100km to fundraise for West Cork Rapid Response, yoga teacher Erica talks about her close relationship with her mum. She tells Helen O’Callaghan how the tragedy has shown her both the fragility of life as well as love’s deep endurance

Erica Bracken on how losing her mother has shown her both the fragility of life as well as love’s deep endurance. Picture: Erica Bracken.

My mom, Finola Halbert Bracken, passed away suddenly on August 11, 2024. She and the rest of my family were on Trálispean beach, West Cork. They’d been in the water, and she got into difficulty.

I wasn’t there. I was in Lisbon, where I’ve lived for three years. My parents, brother, Sam, his wife and daughter, my sister and her three children were all in West Cork, which through our childhood had been our summer holiday base.