MODERN FAMILY
IF I had one Mother’s Day wish it would be to sit down with all the family and enjoy one of my own mum’s Sunday dinners with lashings of gravy, heaps of vegetables, and one of her perfectly cooked roasts that melt in your mouth.
Then we would go for a long walk along a windswept beach, followed by a large sundae in our favourite seafront icecream shop, before finishing off the perfect day in front of a roaring log fire and an episode of our favourite programme.
A lovely dream, but, sadly, the reality is that there is no way it can come true this year.
Not because our beloved mum and nanna isn’t with us any more. She is still with us, but the fierce, busy, caring person who could whip up a feast for the masses in a matter of minutes, the one who would walk us for hours to the furthest point of the longest beach, the one who adores mint choc chip icecream, has gone.
Her razor-sharp memory and knowledge of a wealth of subjects that made her the go-to person when we were stuck on a homework question, or cheating at Trivial Pursuit, are slowly and gradually being erased.
She is still here but has been replaced by someone who can’t even walk a couple of steps unaided and who has completely forgotten that I have spoken to her several times this week.
I have been a mum myself for 13 years but I still get surprised when the boys deliver their cards on Mother’s Day. It is lovely, but I don’t see it as being about me at all because it is my own mum I am thinking about.
The last decade has not been kind to her – in fact, it has been downright cruel as she has been battered by one awful thing after another.
It won’t stop us marking the special day this Sunday – if anything, we are going to make even more of a fuss. The cards have been carefully picked, her favourite soft, gooey sweets have been bought, and the children have drawn pictures and written heartfelt messages.
Instead of it being a sad day, we are determined to try to find the positive and to be grateful for the years that we have had and the great memories that have been created of beach days, tonnes of ice-cream, and lots of laughter.
Grateful for the woman who loves you unconditionally from birth, the one who puts her children before herself, and the one who you could always count on above everyone else.
It shouldn’t just be for one day, we should celebrate our mothers every day for everything they have done for us.
So, take it from me, if you’re in two minds about what to do on Mother’s Day, go and pay that special person a visit for the day, phone her, make a real fuss of her while you can, because I bet, like mine, she’s worth it.