My Beautiful Mum

Many thanks to all of you who left such lovely comments on yesterday's blip about my Mum.

Today's tribute blip to Mum is a sketch of her when she was 19 years old (dated 1959). I had never seen it before and found it amongst Mum's belongings after she died and we were sorting out her house.

I have no idea who the artist was but I think it shows how beautiful my Mum was - and she was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside.

Mum had an interesting, if not a little difficult, childhood. Her Dad was a Londoner, born of Russian Jewish immigrants who came to this country in the late 1800's. Her Mum was a Catholic Czechoslovakian. My Grandad was a merchant seaman. He joined the Merchant Navy when he was a young teenager and lied about his age to join. He travelled the world and in particular, between the UK and South America. He met my Grandmother on one of these trips. She was on her way to South America to get married and my Grandad stole her away from her fiance.

They had a turbulant marriage and divorced when my Mum was very young. My Grandmother then met another Czechoslovakian man and they moved to Canada. As my Grandad was in the Merchant Navy and my Grandmother was in Canada, Mum was made a ward of court. She went to boarding school and spent her holidays with her Aunt and Uncle (my Grandad's brother).

When she was 18 and had finished her A-levels, Mum's plans were to do a Physiotherapy degree and she had a place at a college for the course. She wanted to spend the summer holiday with my Grandmother in Canada (Toronto, to be precise) so my Grandad agreed to pay for her trip over to Toronto and my Grandmother agreed to pay for her trip back...........but once Mum got to Toronto, my Grandmother changed her mind! She wanted Mum to stay in Canada with her and to study there.

Mum was furious and refused to stay with my Grandmother. She moved out and got herself a job with Allen and Hanbury's (a pharmaceutical company which was eventually bought up by Glaxo) with a view to save up to get back home. But she wasn't able to get back in time to start her course.

She stayed in Canada for a couple of years and so I think this sketch must have been done while she was there.

Eventually, she decided to leave Canada but rather than go back to the UK, she decided to visit one of her best friends, Susan, who was living in Portugal. When she got there, she got a job teaching adults to speak English. Susan had recently split up with a boyfriend and introduced my Mum to him as she thought they would get on........and that was my Dad.

And the rest, they say, is history :-)