My Mum - Joanie

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK.  It has quite a different history to 'Mother's Day' but it is often mistakenly called 'Mother's Day' nonetheless.  

These are two of my favourite pictures of my mum.  As a young girl she lived in Michigan in the US, daughter to Lloyd and Ruby and sister to Richard.  After marrying my father (from Ohio), she spent all her adult years in Europe, mostly in the UK.  Having already worked with young people all those years, she, along with my father, started a drug and alcohol rehab centre in Berkshire called Yeldall Manor.  She was widowed young, at 47, and then she also passed away too young at not quite 70.  The picture on the right was taken about 11 years ago on US Mother's Day in May (I always made sure she was honoured on both!).  This was about a year before she became ill.  She looked so well.  

To me, she was just my mum - loving, goofy, wise, articulate, confidante, goofy, godly, animal-lover, writer, goofy, counsellor, book-lover, goofy, speaker, friend.  Oh, and at times she was pretty goofy too!  

I miss her every day!