Our mums are the stars
We’ll eat together and have a little drink over FaceTime SHIRLEY BALLAS JUDGE ON STRICTLY
THEY had been hoping for an emotional reunion for Mother’s Day. Instead, Strictly’s Shirley Ballas will be at home awaiting the results of a Covid test, hopeful it’s just a touch of flu.
And her mum Audrey, 83, will be doing what she does best – trying to look after her little girl, even if she is now 60 years old and miles away.
Shirley says: “She’s still the matriarch. She called me today to make sure I cooked some nice food because I needed my strength. Like I’m 10.
“Before the pandemic, I used to go up on the train to see her every week. She lived with me for so many years, she’s been part of my life right through, so not knowing when I can give her a kiss or a hug is pretty daunting. She’s my rock, my go-to person, even at 83.”
The pair, who are in a bubble, are not letting the pandemic ruin the day completely. They will still be having dinner together, just over a computer.
Shirley says: “She’ll cook a dinner and I’ll cook a dinner and then we’ll eat together and have a little drink over FaceTime. My mum loves to do karaoke. And I love to watch her have a tot of whisky and clear the room with her Johnny Cash. My son Mark’s a great singer, but she can’t sing at all.”
Audrey raised Shirley and her late brother David as a single mum in Wallasey, in The Wirral.
She let Shirley leave home at 14 to train, and later moved in with her to help raise her son Mark, who is now on Dancing with the Stars, while Shirley travelled the world competing.
Having been so close – and shared the loss of Shirley’s brother to suicide in 2003 – it is all the more heartbreaking to be separated now, as Audrey was diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago and still has check-ups, which Shirley cannot now attend with her.
But Audrey will not let that get her down. Shirley says: “She is the only person I know through lockdown who has not complained one time.”
She has an emotional message for Audrey tomorrow. She says: “Dear Mum, thank you for always being there and always being my rock. And thank you for the years that you took care of my son so that I could travel all over the globe to reach my dreams.”