Mother’s Day was coming up and I was wandering what to do for it. There was the usual; slippers, face creams, flowers or a meal out, which I know my mum loves, despite moaning about the price of the food, enjoying and eating it all and then moaning again. Breaking tradition, I decided that this year I wanted to do something a little extra, as Mother’s Day is the time to appreciate mums everywhere for all the effort they put in, during childhood and beyond. I wanted to let my mum know how much I love and appreciate everything she does and has done, and how much she’s inspired me. Hopefully it will inspire everyone to think and appreciate their mum’s a little more today!
Dear Mum,
You inspire me to be creative:
Since I was little your innovative creativity has saved us in a lot of crises, you saved Winnie, my absolute childhood treasure, from going without a nose by sacrificing your glove to make a new one. There was always something you could do to stop boredom, including sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags!
From making your own Grinch suit to playing skittles with a load of toilet rolls, you taught me that no matter what you’ve got, you can always make something good out of it.
You inspire me to be hardworking:
When I was in school I watched you work 9-5 shifts as a nurse. Then, after deciding to change career, you travelled to University on public transport every weekday, working night shifts whilst writing essays and still managing to look after everybody. Needless to say, you set a high standard for working hard. Your example makes commuting up to Lancaster every weekday and having a weekend job, seem like a piece of cake.
You taught me to sacrifice:
If leaving the screening of War of the Worlds (yes the completely mild, 12A) with me because I was hysterically sobbing wasn’t sacrifice enough; watching me go to the cinema pick and mix, even though the thought of buying anything other than flumps must have been killing you inside, definitely counts as sacrifice. This is one of the many times you sacrificed something seemingly small for the benefit of me and my sister. You’d be the one who ate all the de-shelled raisins from the Revels bag because I hated them, sacrificed time to convince me that chicken nuggets weren’t the devil and afterwards, that they weren’t the only food on the planet, as well as sacrificing your lifestyle to be an amazing mum.
You inspire me to be strong:
Not gunna lie, when I was little I thought you had super-powers. At that time, there was no way any mere mortal could solve my impossible childhood problems with such ease; these problems involving the devastation of forgetting to get my food tech ingredients the morning I had the lesson.
Despite growing up and realising that some of the issues you helped me solve weren’t that big for an adult, I realised that you were fighting bigger issues at the same time and still stayed strong. I suppose when you look at it, you came from a group of exemplary and unbelievably resilient women, so it’s not too surprising that you’d be made of nails too.
You inspire me to love:
You’ve been there all my life. When I was having a hard time at school you were there, putting things into perspective and helping me to stay positive. Even now, when my issues feel like mountains I know that if I give you a call, a simple, ‘stop being daft, what you want to do is…’ makes it so much better.
I can’t begin to thank you for the hours upon days upon months upon years of time you’ve invested in me, how much patience you’ve given to me (like when I couldn’t understand money and got suspicious every time you’d ask to change my £1 for 2 50p’s) and how much support, positivity and happiness you’ve brought to my life.
I’d need a book to hold all of our great, crazy memories, but for now all you need to know is that you’re the strongest, most beautiful woman I know and you’re my role model, my friend and my little blind mouse and I wouldn’t change any part of you for the world.