my mum, my best friend ...

Today would have been my mum's 68th birthday, born in South London in November 1939, more or less at the start of WW2, she lived with her mother and her father's parents, her beloved Nan & Gamps in Surrey, although she did spend some of her early childhood staying in relative safety, one place being Wimborne in Dorset, as Surrey could at times be too close for comfort, one house at the end of her road was bombed to the ground! She only really started to get to know her father when he came home from service in the RAF in 1945.

She passed away through illness in 2002. I still find it hard to believe she isn't at the other end of the phone, running to the door to greet me at her home, or sitting in the chair she always sat in, and being force fed everytime I visited, sometimes ending up having two meals in a day!

Every year, my step-dad and I make the pilgrimage up to the crematorium taking with us a lovely arrangement of flowers, it is set in acres of beautiful Sussex countryside, where green woodpeckers, great tits and many other lovely birds and wildlife including deer can be seen. It is such a tranquil place and I would be quite happy to reside there when my time comes.

Mum was such a happy person, full of life and always put everyone else first with her love and generosity. As you can see from these photos above of her growing up in the 1950s she was a beautiful young, fashion concious girl, blessed with the figure of a model, of those genes I didn't inherit! Although I believe I have inherited many of her characteristics, when I talk, laugh and smile I can hear and see my mum in me, being gladfully reminded of her everyday.