My Mom, My Friend

We up in Toowoomba for the weekend.(well that was when I started writing it) It’s Mom’s birthday weekend. I won’t reveal her age but it’s somewhere between 57 and 59 We not doing anything major but spending quality family time and opening a few presents etc. It’s the way mom likes it. She’s Little Miss Low Key and loves it that way. Maybe for her 60th we’ll throw the zimmer frame aside and bust some serious moves on the dance floor!!

The rock of our family in no uncertain terms is Mom. We are extremely lucky to have her in our lives and that expands to not just us, but every person she comes into contact with. All the family adore her and I’m sure the same can be said of all the doctors and patients in the hospital where she works.

Growing up in Durban in the 80′s was a great childhood and we lived a happy one. Mom worked her butt off to provide for us and keep the family running as well as she could. It was tough for her as she had no real support from Dad. Dad was an amazing human being and I think of him daily but he had one problem and that was alcohol. It really suppressed the family life and mom stepped up that much more to compensate for it. She tried so hard to get him to come out of it and back to us but in the end the addiction proved too much and mom made the biggest decision of her life to leave Dad, Durban and everything she had worked so damn hard for and head back south to the Eastern Cape and start anew with two young boys. With the love and support of her siblings and family she did just that and excelled.

It’s 1994 now and she is suddenly a single mother of two boys living in a flat whilst working gruelling shifts to make ends meet. She would sometimes be called out at stupid o’clock like 2am and sneak into my room to say she was popping out and if she wasn’t back in time could I get Bruce up and walk us both to school. I was 13 at the time and loved being mom’s support crew. She toiled hard that year and it all worked out. Near the end of the year she applied for a school nursing job at one of the private schools and got the job. It was absolutely immense for us as a family. Words can’t describe how much that job and school has changed the lives of us 3.

Mom was well loved at the school and was always a favourite of our friends. We used to pop in at tea time to sit in mom’s office eating sandwiches and drinking tea whilst laughing and joking around. She treated all the kids as her own and got really caught up in their lives. Her world revolved around us and making sure we had everything we needed. Myself and Bruce have truly been blessed with the best mother in the world and of that there is no doubt.

She is now a doting grandmother to Thor and totally besotted by him. She is super protective and backs his corner for everything even if he is in the wrong and needs to be disciplined. She would rather whisk him up in her arms and run around the house than see her precious put into place. It really is great to watch the bond forging between the both of them. I can imagine she was like this with us as kids too.

This is just something short to give you a taste of the person we have been blessed with. After the events of the past week with my boss passing on it has made me realise once again that we just can’t take our loved ones for granted as one day they will no longer be around. So pick up the phone, pop in at your loved ones, write them an email or look them straight in the face and tell them how much you love them and why so. They deserve to know and you deserve the peace of mind and joyful return that doing it will provide.

I love you mom and thanks for everything you have and will ever do for me xxx