Nine years after Carrie Fisher's passing, her daughter, actress Billie Lourd, shared a touching tribute on social media, reflecting on her grief and her mother's legacy.

Through an Instagram post, Lourd, 33, accompanied throwback photos with a deeply personal message. “It’s been 9 years since my mom died,” she began, alongside a photo of herself with her parents, Carrie Fisher and Bryan Lourd. The heart of the tribute revolved around a moment of pure joy shared with her own daughter, Jackson, then 3 years old. That moment prompted her to reflect: “I started thinking about how this joy wouldn’t be possible without my mom.” She stated clearly, “This joy only exists because she existed.” Lourd elaborated on this bittersweet idea, explaining that while her mother “is not a physical part of this joy, she is part of its reason for being” and that Fisher “lives on through this joy.” To illustrate this legacy, she included a recent photograph of her two sons, Kingston (5) and Jackson, with their grandfather, Bryan Lourd. “My grief takes many forms: today, right now, at this moment, that form is this joy I get to experience seeing my boys with my dad,” the American Horror Story actress shared. She acknowledged the ever-changing nature of grief: “It could and will change shape several times throughout this day because grief is never just one thing, but right now I’m savoring this bittersweet, painful joy.” To close her message, Billie turned to her mother’s wise words: “'Nothing ever really ends. Only there.'” Applying them to her own life, she concluded: “My mom’s life hasn’t completely ended. She’s there, in my children and in this joy I can experience because of her. Thank you, Mom. I will never stop missing you.” With a detail that encapsulates the passage of time and family continuity, Lourd revealed that the two photos she shared—one with her parents and another with her children and her father—"were taken in the same room 25 years apart ??."

The Death of Fisher

Carrie Fisher, the iconic Princess Leia of Star Wars and daughter of the legendary Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, passed away on December 27, 2016, at the age of 60, after suffering cardiac arrest. A day later, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, died of a stroke at the age of 84, deepening the family tragedy.

Billie Lourd has been open about her mother's struggles, who “battled drug addiction and mental illness her entire life” and, as she herself has said, “ultimately died from it.” Over the years, Lourd has commemorated the anniversary with similar posts, finding in her own motherhood—she is married to actor Austen Rydell and is the mother of two young children—a powerful connection to Fisher's legacy.