For my mother on her 75th Birthday

Dear Mom,

I am thinking of you on your birthday and contemplating all that you are.

You didn't have a happy childhood.   Your father died when you were five and your young mother battled.   You were passed around to relatives and never knew the happiness of a stable family life.   Yet look what you've made of yourself!   Out of the dust of disappointment and despair you created diamonds.

Look at some of those diamonds.   The best decision you took was to marry a wonderful man and now after 57 years you are still happily married.   Together you made for your children a happy family home.  You were a good wife.   I remember how you used to put on make up and make yourself look pretty before Dad came home, holding hands as you walk together and I think you still do.

You were an exceptional mother, wanting the very best for your children.   Facets of light that stand out for me:-   mashed potatoes made into snowmen with peas for eyes and carrots for a nose, shucking peas then tying the pea pod to string and pulling it around for cats to chase, Friday nights and fish and chips on the way to the drive-in, or, if it was rainy or there were no suitable movies showing, a family night together reading comics.

I remember how you made clothes for me, watching the fashions in newspapers and magazines and trying to dress your daughter in the latest trends (unfortunately your daughter was more conservative and didn't always like the latest fashions - remember tent dresses?).   Then there were the ballet and tap costumes - creativity that I didn't realise at the time but which in retrospect is quite remarkable.   I hope I've inherited some of that creativity.

But apart from family things you are a remarkable woman in your own right:   Running an very successful Guide Company for many years, serving on the training team, enabling and encouraging others.   You are a published author and a leading light in the writing community, having given courses and served in leadership positions.   You make a success of whatever you do from joining and then running trim gym to enthusiastically entering competitions for the WAA.

I am so proud that you are my mother and If I can accomplish half of what you have done in your 75 years I will be very happy.   HAPPY BIRTHDAY