Me and My Mum on Mother’s Day

I promise you, you won’t see many photos of me in my bathing costume on this blog but as it’s Mother’s Day I am sharing a photo of me and my Mum.

As you can see, it was way back when the world was in black and white!

I don’t have any idea where it was taken. I don’t really remember many holidays at this age. I may not have had a lot of things in common with my Mum, but I did inherit her long legs as you can tell from the photo. I must have been around six years old and look how tall I am already!

Mum has been away from this world for fifteen years this year. Time has passed quickly, I still remember visiting and chatting with her like it was yesterday.

Mum loved her music and was a pub singer when she was younger. She could play the piano and taught herself, she could also play the accordion. She had a lovely singing voice, something I didn’t inherit, although I do know a bit about music. I was never a natural though.

My Mum also loved knitting and she tried to teach me so many times. I never really did get the hang of it, but I love to crochet and my Mum could never get used to using just one hook.

She loved to read, but only when she was older. I would get her favourite books from the library for her. When she was younger she would just read the papers along with her Mum. She was a big fan of the horoscopes and would read them aloud. She also love crosswords and other puzzles. I often bought her puzzle books, I think word searches were her favourite.

My Mum loved slot machines. I thought she only played them on holiday when she would seek out the arcades. But when I got a job in an arcade in our local shopping centre I was surprised that she was a regular there. She stuck to the small change machines though and never over spent. I think it was less of a gambling addiction and more of a social thing, and she enjoyed it.

When my Dad was alive I was his little princess and we did everything together. My Mum had my baby brother just before Dad passed away suddenly while quite young. Then Mum was always busy with the baby or taking care of her Mum. I didn’t feel very close to her while growing up, and moving out at 18 seemed quite natural. Once I had my first baby though, she was my rock. I would call her every day I couldn’t get to see her. She still spent a lot of time looking after her Mum, but she was also a big help to me.

We didn’t always have a smooth ride though. Something happened at the turn of the century which resulted in my not seeing or speaking to her for five years. It was because I sent her a Mother’s Day card that we started to build bridges again. Plus I was pregnant with Star and felt I needed my Mum. We met up a couple of weeks before Star was born, but Mum got sick and passed away while Boo was still a baby. She never got to meet The Little Man.

Happy Mother’s Day to Mum’s everywhere.