Hats off to my mother - and to all mothers

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Today is my mother’s birthday. She died in 2014 at the age of 104 – and a half. She liked us to add the half. I was remembering what a wonderful mother she was and what huge changes she saw in her lifetime. She was born into a poor farming family and had to leave at a young age to help out at home. For a few years she and her brother would ride into town in the dark to ‘night school’ for a bit more education. For the rest of her life, she could recite much of the poetry that she learnt at school. Just before she was married at 27, she had all her teeth removed. This was pretty much standard practice at the time as it saved the husband dental costs later. She was married in a brown suit. My father died in 2000, by which time they’d been married 63 years. Two days before her first wedding anniversary, she had twins (a boy and a girl) but it wasn’t until the first had been delivered that they discovered there was a second baby on its way. I was born eight years later on the twins’ birthday. She washed by hand for a family of five until about 1956 when she got her first washing machine. We didn’t have mains power but a 32 volt ‘plant’ which supplied limited power for lights and appliances though not the fridge. Water for the garden and orchard was bucketed out on wash-day. She was a crack shot with a rifle and shot many a parrot which came into the orchard. When she appeared with a gun, the cats would fall in behind in anticipation of a free feed. At 99 ½, she had a hip replacement and her last few years were spent in a nursing home. Thankfully she never developed dementia but remained ‘with it’ to her last few days. Her story is not unusual for its time but hats off to all mothers who worked long and hard for their families. The photo is of Mum with the twins.