Raise a glass to the magnificent mums who really do know best

I’m sensible, you see. I stick to well-lit areas, chat on the phone to someone as I go, text whoever I’ve left to say I’m home safely, and my mobile has that Emergency SOS thing. I always have a cross-body bag and wear flat shoes too.

That way I can yomp up the hill in a way that suggests “fit and able to sprint if necessary” and if I feel a bit spooked I have my keys wedged between my fingers like spiked knuckle dusters in my pocket.

At the weekend I even watched a documentary on the Yorkshire Ripper’s forgotten victims and the accounts of two survivors. A uniquely evil monster terrorising women in the 1970’s… horrific yet hard to truly comprehend. But the death of Sarah Everard, pictured,

HAPPY Mother’s Day to all you magnificent matriarchs.

I hope you’re getting spoiled rotten despite lockdown restrictions, or that the family have got something planned for when you can all meet up.

I’ll be raising a glass to my own lovely mum Gloria, who died 31 years ago this month.

And, as ever, I’ll get out the card I gave to her in hospital that final, precious, Mother’s Day.

It had a little badge on the front, which the nurses pinned to her nightie, saying “World’s Greatest Mum”.

I’d always known how special she was so I was a bit surprised by a survey saying kids don’t realise Mother knows best until they hit 32. But then they start to appreciate her pearls of wisdom and pass them on to their own children. “Learn from your mistakes”, “never go to bed on an argument”, “a tidy room is a tidy mind” were just some of the gems in a poll by website Notonthehighstreet.

One of my mum’s favourites was in there too: “Be kind to others, even if they’re not kind to you.”

Because in her long career as a nurse, she never lost her capacity for kindness, compassion and fairness.

And she’d be disgusted at the way today’s nurses are being treated so unfairly by the Government and “rewarded” for their pandemic service with a paltry and insulting pay rise.

So today I am also going to raise a glass to every mother currently working on the NHS front line.

Because they are the world’s greatest, too.