Tchaikovsky's separation from his family at a very young age caused an emotional trauma that tormented him for the rest of his life. His mother's death of Cholera in 1854 deepened the trauma to the point where he couldn't inform Fanny Durbach about the death until two years later. He mourned her loss until he died himself, and referred to the event as 'the crucial event' that ultimately shaped it. The death also prompted Tchaikovsky to make his first serious attempt at writing a composition: A waltz in her memory.