Happy Birthday Ann

Chris is away working in London again, which will probably mean a slight improvement in his hay fever and a corresponding improvement in his mood!

We have had a small amount of rain today ( I had to curb the urge to reenact that famous scene from The Shawshank Redemption..I was so happy).And the day has shot by in a blur of jobs,and normal routine.

It is also my Sister Ann's birthday today.

When my sister Janet and I were born, Ann was a teenager. As young as she was, Ann provided the warmth and stability for us when we were growing up, something that was subtly lacking from our slightly dysfunctional 1970 parents.

Always a matriarch (even then) it is Ann's small kindnesses and attention to detail that always stick in my memory of her when I was a child. Birthday gifts were always an event, play activities were light hearted and enjoyable and parties and get togethers were relaxed and comfortable. With Ann in charge the critical parenting that we were all so used to, was overwhelmed by a more encompassing sense of fun,and a morale boosting celebration of self.

To this day Ann retains this benign matriarchal persona. Ok we all now have a few more lines on our faces, and for me there is far too much grey in my beard, but essentially things have not really changed over nearly fifty years.

She has remained the mother figure that we never really had, by shaping and supporting those more positive facets of our personalities by her celebratory approach to us and the other members of our family. We are, I would always like to think, products of her optimism and warmth...........which are much more positive gifts than what our own mother could have given us

Happy Birthday

xx