My Mum’s Birthday.

My late mother was a softie where words on cards were concerned. My sisters and I always searched for cards with meaningful words for both our parents.

One particular birthday of my mum remains very clear in my memory. We had just lost our dad in the January to cancer so this was my mum’s first birthday in the September without him. Off I went with my granddaughter who was then four year’s old to give mum her present and card. My two sisters, Carol and June were already there.

I could see a beautifully presented flower arrangement just by the side of the fireplace and there was my lovely mum reading her cards, tears streaming down her face. I give her a kiss and handed her my card and again she burst into tears. My little granddaughter totally innocent asked her, “What’s the matter don’t you like them?” My mum’s tears turned to laughter and seconds later; none of us could understand it, but one of the flowers in the arrangement moved, just slightly but definitely moved. My own thoughts at the time were that my dad had come to visit, they had been so close for years and he would have been mortified to see her grief. I knew her tears that day were because dad was no longer with us. My granddaughter’s question brought a little bit of sunshine into my mum’s day, it was just the tonic she needed.

Mum finally come to accept dad’s passing and lived for quite a few more years before she herself died from cancer, at 83.