This is rare childhood photo of me, my oldest Brother and my Mum taken when I was about 16 years old sitting in the garden of the home that I grew up in. Times were tough growing up, we didn’t have very much just each other.
I was listening to a pod cast this weekend where someone was asked the question what did you learn from your mother? It got me thinking about mine and what I had learnt from mine. My Mum was a single parent of 3 when my father left. She was left alone to care for 3 children under the age of 10. I look back and wonder how on earth she managed to do it as my Father made no contribution either physically or financially.
I never saw my mum as a victim of her circumstances, she was a strong Irish woman, she did not suffer fools gladly, she swore a lot, worked extremely hard and she was very clever with money. It seemed that whatever curve ball was thrown her way she just managed to find a way around it. I guess that was the biggest thing I learnt from her, she taught me courage, to never give up and that even through the darkest days the storm clouds would part and the sun would come out.
We never talked about her life when she was alive we never really talked much about anything on an emotional level, it was just her way, a way to protect herself and I can see that now. However, it was what I observed that I learnt and that has taken me though my life to this day.
This year it will be 25 years since she died in the battle she could not win against, which was cancer. That was the turning point in my life where I faced into my own mortality and pushed myself to achieving all the things that I have achieved. Her voice inside my head has never left me.
Thank you Mum for getting me this far and I now see that I learnt more from you than I realised.
