Mum was the family rock especially during our formative years– with Dad away at sea for what seemed like years at a time she had to bring up two children as if on her own for extended periods.
She once marched into Fosters School to complain to the Headmaster, Ken House, that I had been moved into the “lower” set for Maths A Level and the only thing “my son needs is to be challenged not for you to perpetuate his laissez faire attitude”, she managed to get the decision overturned and I ended up going to Leeds University to read Leeds so I think was probably thanks to that moment.
Mum had her way of doing things, she always insisted that before school I took the Dogs for a Walk and more importantly bring her a cup of tea in Bed before leaving to catch the School Bus (no pampering for us). The fact that her concern was that the Dogs got three walks a day regardless of the weather showed you where Mum’s priorities lay.
She would also send us of to search for them when they did a runner knowing full well there was little chance of deterring them from putting up Rabbits in the nearby fields and hedgerows. Even to this day she always took huge joy from seeing the Animals on Facetime whenever we spoke, including the last time I saw on spoke to Mum before she passed away.
Whilst Mum in her own admission was not the greatest of cooks (which she probably inherited from her own Mother) she did have a few favourites that I still hanker after to this day such as home made pizzas with home made coleslaw and chips, Cauliflower Cheese with Danish Salami and home made chips and Blueberry Cheesecake.
I remember on numerous occasions having to “break in” to our own house(we called ourselves the Latchkey kids) as Mum had gone for a walk and forgotten the time or was working on the Village Production, Horse or Flower Show and had not left any means for us to get into the house.
Specifically I recall one Monday after Cricket practice at school, waiting at the foot of Tinney’s lane for over an hour (well and truly before Mobiles were invented let alone common) until we managed to track Mum down to come and collect me, she had completely forgotten and had been out and about doing who knew what.
Christmas Charades when our Uncle and Aunt came over to stay always descended into riots of laughter as Dad would run off in a huff with Mum taking the mickey out of the guessing and acting ability.
She just love winding Belinda up – apparently I was a natural rider (personally I had no interest nor talent) but wasn't going to correct her!
She could still see the humour in growing old and would have found it funny if we had perhaps been a little more irreverent with the choice of music for her memorial ceremony.
Mum was proudly English and for a significant portion of her later life was involved in politics, so much so that when the Internet first became accessible to all she was so proud of the fact she could now communicate on-line that she used to send me all sorts of articles and political commentary as well as non PC jokes through my work email. It took a number of conversations “Mum you can’t send me that", "Mum I’m not sure that is PC" or "Mum can you please stop sending me these you're going to get me sacked!” before she got the message.
When younger, Mum travelled a lot, meeting Dad on board the Orient Line ship Oronsay, hence the name of their home of 43 years in Chetnole, but in later life preferred the home comforts, especially her TV shows, the invention of the VCR was great for Mum, less so for the rest of the family as she could now watch what she wanted and tape the other channel so all episodes of Coronation St, Emmerdale and other soaps were never missed, in fact I reckon if the Stations have lost any episodes in their archives they might be able to locate them in storage at Yonder Ridge Farm.
The number of times I would try and turn the TV over to the Football, when I thought it was safe to do so as Mum was asleep in her favourite armchair to be greeted by “Turn it back I was watching that”.
Mum was from Leeds in West Yorkshire and on occasion would slip into the accent, once to such affect that friends at school were a little scared of Mum. We had been playing Rugby one time, as I was not physically as suited to the game as others I used to get shoved on the wing or at full back because I could catch, tackle and was a reasonable runner, and I caught an up and under and proceeded to get tackled by the entire opposition pack which quickly got joined by the pack of my team who preceded to march back and forth over the top of me until Mum ran on to the pitch, stopped the game shouting in a loud but calm Yorkshire voice “That’s my son get off him now”.
Mum had a “hard” streak, probably the Yorkshire in her, I recall in 1978 (not bitter really) Arsenal had reached the Cup Final and I was playing out the game around the dining room table in my socks using one of Belinda’s Teddy Bears as a ball when I slipped and broke one of Ma’s precious Ribbon Plates hanging on the wall. Ma banned me from watching the game and kept me outside the living room until the 78th minute when the door opened and Ma said you can watch it now. I should have realised that the only reason she was letting me watch was to make me suffer, Ipswich had just scored the only goal of the game – thanks Mum.
We never had an allowance and had to rely on Ma to buy our clothes, her style was to say the least a little restrictive, in fact she bought a pair of new jeans for me when I was going to University, very embarrassing it would have been if I had worn them, they had an elasticated waist! Safe to say they didn’t last long once the Grant money had come through.
Mum you always made me laugh and made me the cheeky little ..... I grew up to be. Love you always Jonathan xxoo