I love you, Mum

With Mother’s Day approaching this Sunday, I thought I’d dedicate my blog this week to my mum.

Everyone’s mum is special to them, and my mum is so very special to me. She was young when she had me (see the picture of the two of us on my christening day, back in England), and I’ve felt lucky to have had young parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I’ve always felt it rather “cool” to have a young mum, although it’s a little disconcerting to have people assume that your grandmother is actually your mother, and that your mother is your sister! Or maybe I just look old… (Look at my adorable Mum watching my wedding ceremony, just 6½ years ago.)

My mum is a fairly reserved person (that gorgeous, English-type reserve), but she’s also a very friendly, happy sort of person who really is nice – and how many people these days truly are nice? I’ve always been proud of her. Who couldn’t be in awe of a mother of four children?! And we always have a giggle together.

There are so many reason why I love her, beyond the fact that she’s my mother. Here are just a few:

She came to Melbourne to spend 10 weeks helping me after my twin girls were born – I think she somehow knew I would be overwhelmed with looking after two babies, and she was right! I had a steep learning curve, and she was there to help make sure I had support, and that the girls always had cuddles (my biggest pain with having had twins is that I didn’t want them to suffer for having been twins – I never wanted them to have to wait for cuddles when they were newborns). She was just there every day, not judging, just offering quiet assistance if I asked for it, and getting stuck into the loads of washing and washing up. It was such a relief to have you there, Mum, and I plan on helping my girls in just the same way one day, should they choose to become mothers.

She always encouraged us to find out things for ourselves. Whenever we asked her about the meaning of a word, she’d always tell us to look it up in the dictionary (or search for a country in the atlas), rather than just giving us her interpretation. I love researching, and discovering new things, and much of this curiosity is down to Mum’s encouragement.

She also encouraged us to go for our dreams. I always loved reading and writing, and when I won a writing competition in Grade 2, I decided I wanted to be a writer. I told Mum that I wanted to write stories, so Dad brought home a typewriter from work, and I tapped out some tales. Mum then suggested that I take them to the local paper in our town, and, despite my protestations and shyness, she gently pushed me up the stairs of the newspaper office and told me to ask the editor whether he’d like to publish my stories! Ever since then, I’ve always tried to face my fears and just put myself out there for opportunities. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

She was always so patient with me when teaching me something – I especially liked her teaching me to knit and sew. She’s naturally good at craft (and just about everything else, including languages – she’s a German teacher to primary-school children, is fluent in French – and she’s a math whizz), and I’m not-so-naturally-good at craft, so I’m sure she found it pretty frustrating at times, trying to pick up my dropped knitting stitches and unpick my attempts at sewing! I eventually mastered these home arts, thanks to Mum’s infinite patience, but I’m still tempted to send home batches of sewing-repair work by Express Post… I’m planning on teaching the girls to knit soon, but I think I’ll wait until Christmas, when Mum comes down – then there can be two of us helping them. A real grandmother-mother-daughter bonding session!

I could go on and on, and I usually do, but maybe I’ll write more next Mother’s Day.

Mumsy, this one’s for you. I love you to bits and pieces.

With love and huge hugs from your admiring daughter,

Jemima Puddleduck

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