In Memory Of My Mom.

Phyllis Harding 1931 - 2011 (Photo taken a few months before her stroke)

I generally try to stick to pure politics on this site, but I wanted to write about this somewhere.

My mom died a few weeks ago. She suffered a stroke in September that left her paralysed and unable to speak and she was not to recover from this.

My mom was one of thirteen children, six of whom died in infancy. I was told my maternal grandmother even buried two children on the same day. My mom nearly succumbed to meningitis herself at the age of eleven. My mom lost both her parents in her youth, her mother died when my mom was twelve and her father when she was seventeen (I was not to know any of my grandparents).

I only learned the other day that my mom and her twin sister were the youngest in the country at the time to be granted tenancy of a council house at age seventeen. While some of the children were looked after by older sisters, my mom and her twin took care of a younger sister and brother. I can't imagine any of this would be allowed today.

My mom was to meet my dad in 1951, get married and have three children, me and my two brothers. They were to stay together all this time, never spending more than a day apart.

When writing the eulogy for the funeral, the celebrant asked what we would miss most about my mom, we all cried, countless thoughts passed through my head all jumbled together. We shared some happy memories of my mom, her warmth and humour and sheer idiosyncracies. But the overriding thought I get now is that in my mom I have lost one of the few people who I knew would always be there for me, stick up for me no matter what, as I stumbled through life making mistakes. For that and more I will always love her and be grateful to her. As my dad said on her death - 'words cannot describe how I feel'. Mom, we will miss you. Love always, Neil.