Friday, May 2, 2014

My amazing mother



One thing I can say about my mum is that she's lived her life to the fullest. I know how lucky I am to have such a close family, and she is everybody's rock. Even know she runs around after her girls, looking after my three nephews every day so that my sisters can work, and honestly I don't know how she does it, but I guess when you've lived your life like hers, resting and relaxing after she'd retired just wasn't an option.
When mum was just fifteen years old, she literally ran away and joined the circus. Okay, she told her parents she was going, but they didn't have much choice in the matter. She travelled through Spain for nearly two years, becoming fluent in Spanish, she travelled some of Europe, and eventually travelled to Africa. When my sisters and I used to look through the photographs and think how exotic it was to have a trapeze artist as a mother she would shake her head and tell us it was actually very hard work. Still, it had it's perks, she even got to adopt a tiny lion cub for a little while.
Mum's adventures didn't end when she met my father. Her days of flinging herself from a trapeze may have been over, but she wasn't satisfied with just settling down and having children, she fostered for many years, well into my childhood. She tells us now that it was the hardest thing she has ever done, and that we shouldn't even consider it, because it's heart breaking. Yet I see the men and women she fostered, as adults, still turning to her for advice, still sending cards every birthday, and I know that she and my dad did a pretty special thing.
So thanks mum, not just for the exciting true stories you told us as children, but for all the lessons and values you taught us. I'm a mother myself now, and if I can do even half as good a job as she did, I think I'll be doing okay.
Emily x x

4 comments:

  1. What a fabulous and very brave mum!

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  2. I'm sure she'd got some great stories to share!

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  3. Emily, what an amazing woman who's leaving such an incredible legacy in the lives of her children! Thanks for sharing about her!

    fedora at gmail dot com

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