Mum 25/05/1936 11/05/2012

Mums, we've all got one, and to be truthful most people would tell you that theirs is the best, and they would be right, mine was the best as well. I say mine, I do of course mean mine and Stuart.
Bringing up two boys as a single parent from 1974 until the day we were big enough, and ugly enough to cope on our own takes some doing.
In those days being a single parent was a little more unusual than it is today, there was a bit more stigma attached to it, and a lot less state help, but mum did a brilliant job.
She loved having fun and most of the time was in a good mood, even when I would turn up where she worked asking if she had a few pence I could have for sweets, she normally managed to find a few pence in her purse, maybe that's why I did it.
She always had the worst sense of direction out of anyone I new. Our next door neighbour Joe always said that 'if you turned mum round twice in her garden she would have trouble finding home' maybe a little extreme but not that wide of the mark.
Another thing she could never do very well was ride a bike. We had some big laughs on holiday when we hired a tandem one year with the express aim of teaching mum to ride it, well, at least we tried! You see the only way to teach someone to ride a bike if it's a tandem is by letting them take the front seat at some stage, this means some other fool has to get on the back, danger money please.
Firstly I took the front seat and mum perched on the back and we preceded to wobble along. Trying to control a bike at the front when the person on the back has no balance is, what should I say, fun!
Ok, I must warn you at this point, I'm about to upload a photo of me and mum on the tandem, and to say my fashion sense was laps would be an understatement, anyway, here goes.

Sorry!

Sorry about the quality of the picture, this was in the days before digital cameras. I think you can tell that mum was worried due to the fact that she dare not put her feet down. Its like she's saying. Nope, my feet are off the ground now if they go back down they wont come up again. Her knuckles are also very white.
Also, like I say, sorry for the fashion faux-par on my part.
Mum did progress to the front seat of the tandem at some stage I have a photo to show this, unfortunately the person on the back is not a family member and I wouldn't feel good about putting their picture on the here, sorry.
I remember the time when a week before me and Sam was getting married I went out for my stag night and Sam, Mum and Stuarts wife to be had a small hen night in doors. I say small, that only means small in the fact that they never went out, not small in the amount they drank. Drink wise this was a large hen night due to the site that greeted me and Stuart upon our drunken return. I don't think I have every sobered up so quick. You can keep your coffee, the site of mum crawling around the living room floor with her teeth in a glass was enough to sober up the most drunken person ever. Mumbling and dribbling her way towards the sofa, what a site. As if that wasn't bad enough, the site that greeted us upstairs once we had but mum to bed was even worse, but that's for another day, maybe.
As I say at the top of this blog, she was a great mum who put always put us first. She worked hard but she enjoyed her play as much. She would be the life and soul of any family gathering, non stop dancing, the sort of dancing you always see on You've been framed. Really embarrassing parent dancing, the only thing stopping her standing out like a sore thumb was the fact that every other adult danced equally as badly.

Go girl!

It's slightly embarrassing being present as a teenager at these events, when, in my eyes, the only person there with any fashion sense was me, photo poof below.


Putting on the style

There you go, white trouser, shoes and socks, along with the pink shirt, always a good look. I think the word your looking for is tasteful.
There probably numerous other tales of mums behaviour that I could tell but this post would go on for ages, so I leave it at this.
I will just finish it off by saying, Mum, we will miss you, it was great.