Month: July 2013

Brenda in Paris 1962. Taken from the family album. Originally snapped on a girls weekend away, when she was 22. This is my beautiful Mum.

So my friends.  This post is dedicated her.   She would probably be very embarrassed to know that I have posted a photo of her for the world to see. I would without doubt, get told off, even at my age.  The truth is that without her I would not be doing this at all.

There are so many pearls of wisdom that she shared with us as a family. Like tea really can solve everything, along with as many swear words as is possible to string together, if it seems that everything is going wrong.  I cannot remember a time when she wouldn’t have a creative project on the go, especially knitting.  So I learnt early on that creativity was something worth nurturing.   She would tell me to trust my gut instincts.  To go with them, even if it seemed impossible odds are stacked up against me.  Always to be true to yourself and how you feel.  That dedication with a bit of  patience gets great things accomplished.  And life.  Well it does, like a ball of wool,  become unraveled sometimes through no fault of our own.  It’s then, that’s it’s alright to start over again.

I grew up with her love of books, films and soul music, which is why this last photo in my blog today, has this title.

‘ A Rose is Still a Rose’  was a song sung by the legendary Aretha Franklin.  Mum said it always reminded her of me.  It’s lyrics today, still ring true.

She was the wisest, funniest, most independent woman. Who had ‘sod it days’ on a regular basis. We find ourselves using the words ‘doofer’, ‘whatsit’ or ‘dooberry’ when the correct words slip our minds, just like she used to. My daughters and I have our ‘sod it days’ in her honor.  As we drink our way through too many cups of tea, putting the world to rights, we think of you with a smile. Brenda Stanley.