My Mum died last December and we buried her on 19th so last Christmas came and went and I can’t remember much about it. naturally I have been thinking a lot about her and some of the memories are so vivid and I wondered what memories other people have of their Mums.
I remember being quite small and cleaning our brass door knob and letter box with Mum showing me what to do. Why does that stick in my mind? I remember her always being busy cooking, knitting, doing housework, washing clothes, gardening etc. She seldom sat down and relaxed. i remember her coming to all school events and being very proud. I remember her being very homesick for her big Irish family. i remember her coming back from the phone box with tears in her eyes after talking to some of them at Christmas as we didnt have a phone at home. I remember her sitting writing letters to her family and the happiness she got when a letter arrived for her. She devoured them!
Mine died years ago too .
Mum 20 years ago … Dad 50 years ago … and yeh, I still miss them.
But I never envied them having a kid like me …ha ha.
The oddest thing my mum ever said to me was …
‘Morty, I went with an American during the war until he got wounded and sent back to the States, I was supposed to go over there for us to be married … you’d have been an American then.’
Except I said … ‘No mum. I wouldn’t have been born as I am my fathers daughter and without my dad I wouldn’t exist.’
My Mother in the evenings would sit in front of our old TV,
With clicking clacking needles and her knitting on her knee,
Row on row of plain and purl
Fair isle stitches then a twirl,
Just a glance to see how it’s doing
Then turn back for the TV viewing.
Sadly now her hands won’t let her do the task
Arthritus has claimed them, her knitting a thing of the past
But I can still remember the sound that those needles made
At the end of a Winter’s day, the memory will never fade.
My Mother, many years ago, died aged 93, she just gave up.
Tomorrow is her birthday and I’ll remember the time when we could celebrate it together. I’m not talking about my father who was an alcoholic and thus a complete failure. But I miss my mum and wish she’d have lived longer so that we could spend my retirement together, now that I’d have more time than I had while I was working. But she was already 40 when giving birth to identical twins.
Her life until the age of 50 was hard. She had been bombed out in 1945 and her and, consequently, also our living standard was poor until reunification. She lost her first son aged 20 when he and his girlfriend died in a motorcycle accident. Her brother had got killed in the war as a soldier on the eastern front.
My twin brother and I did a lot to make her retirement a happy one. When she was 80, I found her a home near where I had to live and looked after her for eight years while she was wheelchair-bound until she passed away in 2005 aged 88. My conscience is clear and I’m glad that I was able to give something back while she was living. She deserved it.
One Christmas she never forgot.She had a brand new cooker to cook the lunch for the big day.But it didn’t work and we had some nice festive sandwiches in stead.The shop came out after a few days to replace it but discovered she hadn’t turned the timer on.
I left home very young and then moved 300 miles away from my mum so after the age of 16 I rarely saw her . For years didnt have a phone to ring her . I pined all my life to be closer to her . I would have loved to have known her more , to have spoilt her and be close but I never got the chance . Sometimes I only saw my mum once a year as I didnt drive and only got 2 weeks a year off work . Life made it impossible sadly . But what I do remember of my mum is her sense of humour was wonderful and she was a super cook . She deserved a better life than she had .
I wish I could think of my mum with happiness but I can’t she was always depressed and difficult and then her life was plagued with Ill health pain and suffering .
Dad died 22 years ago but thankfully my mum is still with us, although 92 and quite frail now every day is a bonus, and we will miss her warmth and gentle humour when she is gone…
Humour is everything! My Mum and I shared the same sense of humour and would laugh until we cried sometimes. We could be out together and see something funny and we just had to look at each other and off we would go! She was 96 and a half when she died.
As a male child, I wasn’t the daughter mother wanted either Rox, so I know exactly what you mean My father was dead by the time I was 5, so being taken in by my paternal grandparents at 8 was the best thing that could have happened to me. Those who were blessed with a loving Mum and not just a biological harridan of a mother should consider themselves fortunate … very fortunate indeed.
Yes Flowerpower, she had a book for the finances, I had a Spreadsheet, the book was real time the Spreadsheet allowed for future projections, both the same in essence.
Sounds bad I know, but my relationship with my mum was never good. I was simply not the daughter she wanted. 
My father was dead by the time I was 5, so being taken in by my paternal grandparents at 8 was the best thing that could have happened to me. Those who were blessed with a loving Mum and not just a biological harridan of a mother should consider themselves fortunate … very fortunate indeed.