Wonderful Women: Mothers

Brigid my Mother

My favourite thing for my Mummy to say to me every day is:

"What way is your wash basket today?" She goes straight to the important stuff.

Without fail, if I tell her it's full, she'll tell me to bring it up to her. If I tell her it's empty, she'll sound genuinely over the moon and always replies - that won't last long.

Every time she asks, I laugh to myself because I'm a grown woman. I run a business. I make decisions all day long. Yet somehow my mummy is still checking in on the state of my washing basket and if I'm honest, I hope she never stops.

To continue with our series of Wonderful Women, I have teamed up with Wonders, my favourite footwear brand, to celebrate the amazing women in our lives.

I imagine if I asked most people who the most wonderful woman in their life is, many would give the same answer. There is something amazing about the ordinary things our mums do every day. The things that often go unnoticed at the time but become some of our most treasured memories as we grow older.

I am one of six children, with five brothers, and when I think about my childhood and the years that followed, I realise just how much of my mum’s life has been spent caring for others. I remember the winters when we were all grown up, still living at home and heading off to work. Before any of us were even out of bed, Mummy would already be outside with the kettle, defrosting the windscreens of cars and vans lined up outside the house. While the rest of us slept, she was making sure nobody would be late, by braving the cold on each trip in and out of the house to refill the kettle. What a woman. At the time it seemed normal routine but now that I am older I look back in awe and disbelief.

My parents and my brothers

I remember walking into the kitchen in the mornings and seeing lunches lined up along the island. Daddy’s lunch. My five brothers’ lunches. Every one of them carefully made and labelled with a little note on top. No butter. Brown sauce. Tuna and onion. Ham. Each sandwich made exactly the way that person liked it. Time and time again my brothers would say - “Mummy don’t be making my lunch, I will pick something up at the shop.” But she loved doing it.

Years later, Mummy told me about one of the biggest decisions she ever made. When Padraig was little and she was expecting me, she was working in the Civil Service, a job she genuinely loved, but with another baby on the way, she knew she would have to make a choice. She remembers taking Padraig to our GP one day and she began to explain how unsettled she felt about leaving her career behind. The G.P listened and then said something she has never forgotten. “If that’s what you want to do, you’ll never regret that decision for the rest of your life, being at home with your children.” She often says that hearing those words brought her peace. And despite the sacrifices, she never regretted her decision for a single day.

My Mother

Sometimes, I tell her she needs to think about herself more. I joke with her that she spends too much time worrying about everyone else, but she always says the same thing. “That’s what makes me happy.” She loves looking after her family, “her boys” and is so content to be the homemaker. I think that’s why I look up to her so much. She is the example I look to when I think about the kind of mother I want to be.

I also think I inherited my love for fashion and style from my mummy. What amazes me most is her memory for detail. I can’t remember what I wore to my first disco, or what most people would call their first dance, yet she can recall entire outfits with such clarity. She will often talk about what she was wearing when she first met my Daddy. Or what she wore when she made her first trip to America to visit her sister Betty.

My Mother and her sister Betty

And she remembers what Betty was wearing the first time she came home from America after leaving Ireland all those years ago. She speaks about those moments not just as memories, but as stories she can still see in her mind. I realise now that I have taken that same love of style her.

My Mother and her sister Margaret

I have a feeling many of you are thinking about your own mummy as you read this. The one who made the lunches. The one who stayed up waiting for you to get home. The one who worried when nobody else knew there was anything to worry about.

I know not everyone reading this still has their Mummy but I hope it has brought back a memory, a smile, a familiar phrase, or one of those little moments that only your mummy could have created with you.

Some of the most wonderful women are no longer with us but we will always remember their little ways, their phonecalls and their check in's to see how our wash baskets are.

Here's to the wonderful women in the Digg Community. Can't wait to share even more wonderful women in the months ahead. I would love to hear about the wonderful women in your life.

Love Caroline x