To My Mum

It’s nearly 3 years since my Mum died, from lung cancer, on Boxing Day, 2006. We all still miss her terribly and I think about her a lot - especially her encouragement to me in much of my teens (ok that IS now ancient history!), when self-doubt seemed to be my default mode of operation.

She told me repeatedly: ‘You can do anything, if you put your mind to it.’ I dismissed it at first as just one of those platitudes that parents offer to cheer up moody kids! But as I got older I watched her try new things herself, stretch herself intellectually and continually strive to acquire new skills and knowledge. This role model has been one of the most amazing gifts that a parent could have given their child.

In her later years, when she wasn’t as mobile as she once was, she decided to teach herself how to use a computer and became an avid ’silver surfer’. She began our family history research, conducting much of it online! To exemplify her philosophy I wrote her a poem (I’m not a poet as you will see when you read it). But Mum’s you-can-do-it approach, which is summarised in my clumsy verse, has helped me so much and I thought that perhaps it might help someone else.

TO MY MUM
(Mothering Sunday, 2000)
Almost all of my friends’ mums, to occupy their leisure time,
Turn their hands to knitting, sewing, baking – that’s the paradigm.
It’s the kind of thing that ladies seem to want to do for fun,
When their children long have left the former family mans-i-on.

This may help to ease the gentle passing of the hours of light.
But I wonder, do they do it just to prove that they’re polite?
No such dross for my mum, she’s a budding expert with I.T.!
Taught herself to speak computer – gone and made a family tree!!

When the needlework and sweaters of the other Mums are junk,
My mum’s family tree will still be sprouting branches from its trunk.
So you see I’m proud of Mum - no ordinary parent, she.
Loves a major project challenge: GENEALOGY (and me!).

This entry was posted on 26/10/2009 at 12:04 am and is filed under My Learning, Life, web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.