This study aimed to understand mothers’ recollections of the sudden deaths of their children in an earthquake that hit Taiwan on September 21, 1999. A phenomenological approach to mothers’ recollections was conducted through person-centered process (Rogers, 1961, 1980) of data collection, and a Moustakas’s (1994) data analysis that led to a composite textual-structural description. This experience is unique in a way that has made Taiwanese mothers seemingly torn between the contradictory forces of their natural tendency to recall their deceased children and the widespread hearsay that recollection ought to be forbidden for the sake of the deceased’s benefit in the afterworld. The paradoxical nature of mothers’ recollections and the issues of cultural differences and religious beliefs were discussed.