Mothering Sunday

Sunday 14th March, 2021

It is Mother's Day and as such I am reminded of how fortunate I have been to have had such a marvellous family and an especially remarkable Mother. May she rest in peace. Her conversion to Catholicism, her energy, her compassion and her experiences as a nurse during the War, her stunning ability to tell stories, her social prowess because she loved people, her faith and her work with various charities in the Middle East where she cared for refugees, the sick, dying, elderly, unwanted and her deep love of my papa and her three sons plus other family has all had a major influence on me. Her long illness and dementia was hard to bear but it taught me about the fickleness of life but the solid reality of love.

As I contemplate a new home in Cheltenham so I recall my Grand Father who lived there and my Grand Mother. He was a vicar and she the perfect wife. She had such an influence on people and a tact which allowed her to help without patronising. She would realise that some one needed something they could not afford etc and she would somehow make them feel that miraculously she had whatever it was and it would do her a favour to take it off her. She oozed love and care and my Mother said she had learned much from her. She was from a grand family yet had the common touch to the point that her funeral was attended by so many that the large church was over flowing with local Grandees, the pig man, the butcher and all sorts...they shut the shops for three hours and I recall many of the shops had her picture in their window. Everybody felt she was their best friend and, in a real sense, she was. She had such humility. How fortunate I have been. Anyway that is my memory for Mother's Day and what a blessed memory it is...I have many more stories which could fill a book and make most people laugh from my Mother's adventures on the Orient Express to being asked by the wife of my Father's bank's Chairman in the middle of Anatolia on a deserted road if she had any loo paper. Being told by my Mother that there was none in the car the reply came from behind a bush in a very ladida voice " Oh Kay I have a Harvey Nicholls bill in my handbag. Do you think that would do?"

After streaming Mass with the priest in pink I had a phone call with a friend who kindly acts as my lawyer. There are such kind people helping with my purchase of the flat and all have kind thoughts. Also my Landlady's daughter came to take her Mother out to see the snowdrops and new wild garlic near Balmerino so I could use the telephone which I dislike doing for various reasons.

Then for a long walk. Up the hill and past the lambs and sheep, more lambs by the day. It was blustery and yet the sun shone out. I was surprised at the number of people commenting on my litter collecting. In two cases the daughter of the farmer of the sheep went by on a tractor pulling a trailer filled with Mother sheep and their lambs. She stopped and thanked me. Then her Mother, the farmer, saw me later and did the same " it really helps", she said. Finally another couple by the dual carriage way I have to cross said the same and how they once a week walk Wormit Bay and picked up the litter.

I felt tired at the end of the walk and was rewarded for as I passed 'kitchenbake' a local cafe they were closing their food shop and take away. The Manageress called out to me as I passed 'help yourself, these are left overs'. Various packets of things were on a bench so I took a delicious chocolate brownie which was more chocolate than brownie and heavily flavoured with orange and peppermint. It was superb and very large and much appreciated.

Mother's Day and Laetare Sunday...both causes to rejoice. As is the hope of a home of my own. Life is utterly unexpected.