OF ONE MIND

Growing up in Rhodesia was idyllic. My mother was a stay at home mom to myself and my two younger sisters. My father was in the air force and up to the age of 11 we lived in Gwelo, Thornhill, which was the airforce base and married quarters. I was too young at that time to understand the many fears my mother must have had. My father went to cyprus and aiden to help in their war efforts. He was gone months at a time. My only worry was whether he was going to bring me something nice from those far away lands! Dander was not on my radar and my mother hid her anxiety from us well, always reassuring us, I felt safe and secure, I felt happiness for me always was guaranteed.

It was many years later that I fully understood the huge sacrifice she made for us, and what life must really have been like for her.

I married policeman in the British South Africa Police and with the birth of my first daughter, Shirley Ann {Dawn in the home blogspot}, war broke out. It was my turn to be on my own for long periods of time. I went on to have two more daughters Kerry Lyn {Rivers Of Joy Blogspot} and Lisa Jane {Dust to Beauty blogspot}. They were a year apart. Call up babies I called them. I was both mom and dad to them, learned all the tasks my husband did, and did them as well as he did, tried to hide my anxiety and fears to create a safe world for my baby daughters. I had become my my mother. I got it. I hoped and prayed that I was doing as good a job as my mother had done 15 or so years before me.

Then one day an amazing thing happened. We both cherish the memory or it to this day. We lived in a new suburb where telephone lines had not yet been installed and I urgently needed to contact my mother. I fretted and prayed. Fifteen minutes later my mother arrived carrying a pot of half heated soup. "I thought I would come and have lunch with you" she said. For no reasonable reason she had her food off the stove and brought it to me. I needed her and she knew, she was there. I was speechless, but very very grateful. She was still keeping my world safe! Half cooked food? I dont really know what to thing about what happened that day. We did not need a telephone that was for sure!

My mother shared much of the lives of my children while they were growing up, she reaps the rewards.
We left Rhodesia when Shirley Ann was 7. We also went onto have a son when the girls were half grown. He knew what it was was to have a present father all the time, he did not have to go to school in a landmine vehicle, picnics wernt restricted to the garden. Life for him was good.

Thank you mom for all you have done and all you mean to me and your grandchildren. They too love you very much.