Symbolism in The Shawl

As in every book, there is always an underlying meaning in something. Something I found interesting was the manner in which Rosa Lublin, the main character in Cynthia Ozick's The Shawl writes to her daughter who was brutally murdered, Magda. Rosa writes to her as if Magda is all grown up, perhaps she lives somewhere of a distance from her mother. I often have thought as to why she does this. Perhaps it is coming from a mother's perspective and she had high aspirations for her daughter to be something, despite the fact she did not have a chance? Or perhaps Rosa really is crazy and believes her daughter is alive. Perhaps Rosa knows that Magda is alive in spirit and associates her body literally with that of spirit.
An example of Rosa's unusual writing style to her daughter is on page 39. Ozick writes, " Forgive me, my yellow lioness. Too long a time since the last writing. " My thoughts are on this statement that maybe Rosa "writes" to her daughter as a way to cope with the remembrance of the loss of Magda. She address her with the oddest names, such as "lioness." Rosa really idolizes her daughter and thinks the world of her. Rosa then goes on discussing the type of life she had growing up and how her parents were. I think she does this because she never had her child to actually get to talk about her life growing up. As ironic as it is, both of her parents were into stories in a different sense, which is an obvious reason to why Rosa has no problems concocting one. From what Ozick writes, her father was a specialist in "foreign texts and periodicals." Her mother "published poetry." Something I find unique is how Ozick then writes, "To you all these accounts must have the ring of pure legend, even Stella, who CAN remember, refuses" on page 41. These people obviously have the gene of story-telling in them, so why is it any different that Rosa can make up a life for her daughter and writes to her as if she is real? It is true she lost her baby girl, but she is not alive in the way Rosa makes her to be. I think that Rosa wants so badly to believe that Madga is still alive, that Rosa did not fail as a mother and did not let her daughter die but that she saved her and they grew up together. Perhaps Rosa is not writing to her daughter... but her daughter as an angel.