Emmerdale star Lisa Riley says she sends a “postcard to heaven” for her late mother every year.
The actress, 45, who lost mum Cath to breast cancer aged 58 in 2012, marks special days in her honour every year with brother Liam and his kids Jake, Joshua and Everlyn.
She said: “We let balloons off and say they’re going to heaven.
“For her birthday I get my nephews and my niece to write a postcard and we go to the post office and the address is ‘to heaven’.”
Lisa, who plays Mandy Dingle in the ITV soap, is still holding on to the dried roses from Cath’s casket.
The actress told the My Time Capsule podcast: “Some people think it’s weird. But it’s my mum.”
In recent months, Lisa revealed her house was left looking "like a squat" after wild parties with her friends.
She has been sober for a number of years now but she recalled how her house was left a tip every time her friends came over to drink at her place.
She remembers how everyone would head back to hers because she had a bar and an "endless supply of drink".
Speaking on the One For The Road podcast, she said: "I remember thinking to myself, 'Why does everybody come back to my house?' Well, because there was a bar. There was an endless supply of drink."
"Look at the state of my house! It looks like a squat!" she remembers.
Lisa admits wine "took the edge off" for her, especially after her mother's passing.
She said: "The wine took the edge off - it truly, truly did. I was a bit of a grey cloud, because I wasn't happy in myself."
And now she says it is the smell of alcohol which stops her from going back to drinking again.
"The smell, that's one of the things that will never make me drink again. Only when you don't drink can you smell it," she added.
Earlier this year, Lisa celebrated six years sober and said she felt "so happy and very proud" about her decision to quit drinking.
"CELEBRATING…CELEBRATE….CELBRATION. SIX YEARS SOBER TODAY," she wrote.
"reasons to feel so happy and very proud!!! I chose a life I wanted to live, and never for one single second have I looked back. Here’s to many more 19th August, where everything makes sense, and mostly I’m so bloody happy!! #sober #soberlife."
