Today would have been my mum’s 75th birthday. So I have attempted to draw her and somehow managed to give her a far too big head. She actually had a weirdly small head, often having to wear kids’ hats because grown-up ones would be too big. And she wore a lot of hats.
She loved maths and board games. Chris picked up a book about the maths of games in a charity shop the other day and when he showed it to me I said ‘You know who would have loved this?’ And he said ‘I do.’ I love that he knew. But I also felt a bit sad that he couldn’t have spotted it and bought it to give to her today.
I listened to The Archers while I drew this morning. Jenny loved The Archers and had been listening to it since she was a kid. During my home-educated years, we would make our lunch to coincide with The Archers and then… was it followed by Women’s Hour? Hmm… I can’t remember, but I know we would usually listen to that too. Oh, and the Afternoon Play! I used to love that.
I think I will watch the Peaky Blinders film this evening. She introduced me to Peaky Blinders. I couldn’t fathom how she enjoyed a TV show full of violence when she was a staunch second generation pacifist. But it was full of great characters and also historical fiction focusing on ordinary working-class people and not on kings and queens. Plus it was a great drama and had a bit of a soap opera feel to it, too, maybe. Something else that I grew up with through her. As well as listening to The Archers we watched Emmerdale, Crossroads, Coronation Street, Eastenders, Brookside, and Neighbours and Home and Away!
If you want to read more about Jenny, I wrote this piece (in the Authentic Maximalism Substack I have not updated in a very long time):
I also wrote about her over on my website a year after she died.
I will think about her lots today, not that I don’t think about her (and my dad) most days. And tomorrow, when I will be celebrating my sister’s birthday. We would usually combine the two birthdays, which was a little unfair on both of them, I suppose. There would be nice food and lots of board games and ridiculous amounts of laughter. Birthdays were always special.
Thanks for listening to some of my memories of Mama. See you tomorrow.
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