My mom and I had a great friendship. We knew how to make each other laugh. She taught me how to be a strong independent woman and I taught her to say I love you.
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We always enjoyed our double Mother’s Day routine. I would send a card or call to celebrate her on UK’s March Mothering Sunday. She loved that. And then I’d do the same again in May, for Canadian Mother’s Day. “Oh! What a lovely surprise!” she’d say. Even though we did this every year.
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In my 20’s I asked mom if it was weird that I didn’t want to marry or have kids. “Not a bit of it,” Nan said. “If I’d had the freedom and choices you have, I would have done the same.” Her only options were to be a teacher, nurse or secretary. And until the 1970’s, the Irish “marriage bar” prevented women from staying in the workforce after marrying. She and my father both gave me carte blanche to live my life exactly the way I wanted to, for which I am so grateful.
Nan studied to be a teacher during the war. Stranmillis College relocated to a remote Ulster seaside town of Portrush to avoid the heavy bombing in Belfast. Pursued for her beauty, Nan had a lot of fun but she hated teaching. “I would’ve made a good lawyer,” she often mused.
Mum had a passion for antiques. She studied journals, books and guides on everything from pewter, glass, china to 50’s decor. Her enormous character house in the centre of Canterbury’s medieval walled city - 4 storeys, 8 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, a warehouse and an antique shop - was groaning with rare and junky collectibles and clutter.
It took us 18 months to clear the house after she died in 2011. We estimate a total of 25 one-tonne truck loads went to the auction house, dealers, goodwill and the dump. The life and times of Errol House deserves an essay of its own, a story for another time.
Happy UK Mother’s Day dear Momma. I love you.