International Women’s Day: Mel

Mum,
You are my role model and my best friend.
In the last 10 years, you’ve lost your husband of 45 years, been diagnosed with cancer of the uterus, had surgery, and beat it, only to find that its back in your lungs in the last few weeks.
Your response to adversity has always been to find the positive, identify a pathway through and be grateful for the opportunities. You never feel sorry for yourself, you never moan, you just get on with it and you LIVE. Every day you fill your life with friends, things you like to do, travel and your family. Your strength and pragmatism will never cease to amaze me, and I try to live my life in just the same way because that’s what you taught me.
You gave me my love of music, bringing me up on a diet of The Beatles, The Kinks, the Stones, Opera and Abba. It gives me great joy that you’ve become a Devin Townsend fan through me. I guess I can only hope that you get into Machine Head or Tesseract at some point…
On International Women’s Day I celebrate our love and friendship, I celebrate the laughter, the wine and general misbehaviour, I salute your power and I thank you for being my Mum but more importantly my friend and mentor. I wouldn’t be me without you.