Mum and Dad
Breakfast in bed and huge bouquets of flowers..........Not. Shovelling shite on my crutches muttering about my 'pants' children was the true story until Joseph redeemed himself and a bunch of flowers arrived at mid-day. Bless him, Jay has an excuse as she is still in Vietnam on her gap year and Josh being newly married has other things on his mind.
My parents came to lunch and we had a lovely day. My mother really is an amazing woman. She comes from a farming family and has had some true hardships in her life. She is the only survivor from five children - three died before reaching the age of five with various illnesses including meningitis and I think, polio. That left her and her older brother who was the apple of her parents eye. At the age of fourteen she was walking home from school when she saw a crowd gathered in one of her fields and went to investigate - there was what was left of her brother, who had been caught in the combine. Dead. Her parents never really recovered from his death and her father died shortly afterwards probably from a broken heart.
Her mother needed someone to help on the farm and her father's brother volunteered. Three years later my mother found him in the bottom meadow with his brains blown out. He had committed suicide. It transpired that he had fallen in love with my grandmother who still being grief ridden from the death of most of her family had rejected him which he could not accept.
My mother then got a place in University and studied Social Sciences at Liverpool. She didn't have a car and would cycle to Liverpool University from her home in Henllan near Denbigh across the treacherous Horse Shoe Pass - 50 to 60 miles of mountainous roads. A determined effort.
She then met my father , got married and had rather a tough life being married to a struggling Baptist Minister with four children and a full time job as an Almoner overseeing the rehabilitation of quadriplegics. When she was in her mid fifties she suffered a brain hemorrhage which then resulted in a stroke. She very nearly died and was unable to talk, read, write, or move her right arm. She had to completely start from scratch with her speech, reading and writing, but she just got on with it in a typically determined attitude and never complained. She still struggles with her speech now but it has improved immensely.
Four years ago she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. She had all the treatment including a colostomy. Once again she never complained and was always far more interested and concerned about other people's problems than her own. Having got the all clear from her cancer we were looking forward to her enjoying the rest of her time without any more health problems but now she has just been diagnosed with macular degeneration and has already lost most of the sight in one eye and could lose her sight completely. It is ironic really as she doesn't drink alcohol, smoke and has always had a very healthy diet and lifestyle. In true style, once again, there are no complaints and she is as cheerful as ever. An amazing woman and a great Mum.
