Dear Mum

Thank you for loving me. I’m sorry for all the stupid things I did when I was a teenager. I know you have always worked so hard all your life. You are in your seventies now and you still look after dad and cook and clean for him, just like you did for all of us when I was young. Thank you for getting up at 5am on those cold winter mornings so that you could light that old wood stove and cook creamed rice for us for breakfast before we walked to school. I know we didn’t have much back in the sixties; you and dad worked so hard to make a life for us in this new country; Australia. Dad built us a tiny home with his own hands. It only had two rooms; one for sleeping; one for everything else. We had a kerosene fridge and an old tin bathtub which doubled for what ever was needed. I remember going swimming at Moorook with you. Though you couldn’t swim; you were there for me and even jumped in to save a boy; even though you were terrified of deep water! That’s what mothers do!

When I visited you at Easter time, you said the most beautiful thing to me. You said that you “loved me and always would, no matter what I’d done or where I’d been; you would always love me; because that’s what being a mother is all about!” Thank you mum for giving me your unconditional love! (Just like Jesus does for us all!)

Thank you to all the mums who love us no matter what we’ve done; no matter where we’ve wandered; no matter what we’ve said. We love you and thank you daily, but especially on Mother’s Day!