Belated mothers' day

My mother died two years ago on the 14th April at the age of 98, a month before her 99th birthday. What with that, and mothers' day, she's been much on my mind. In fact, I'd say she sent me a little wave on mothers' day itself.

You see, one of the songs she loved -- and she loved many -- was Willie Nelson singing 'Crazy'. It's not a song you hear that often these days, but lo and behold, while driving in the car on mothers' day morning, the poignant melody and words came winding out of the radio, into my ears, my mind, my heart.

I've written a bit before about my parents' relationship before they married. But I don't think I've told you about what my dad's younger brother did for them before the wedding. In South Africa in those days you were married in community of property. This caused great hardship for many women, but that's another story... Those in the know and who could afford it would have an ante-nuptial contract drawn up so that the wife retained a measure of economic independence.

My Uncle Bert, being a lawyer, drew up this contract for my mom and dad. And it contained a few surprises. Knowing my mom, my uncle had specified certain things that worked decidedly in her favour. For instance, my mother was entitled to redecorate every few years (never having seen the document, I can't be more precise).

I truly wish I'd had the opportunity to read their marriage contract. More, I love it that my uncle was so supportive of my mom when the elder sister was not. Amazingly enough, my mother never bore a grudge and was unceasingly generous and kind towards my aunt.

Watch what I say?

My grandson came to be with me for a while this morning. When he arrived I said, 'Lovely weather for ducks!' So a couple of hours later the phone rang and it was his mom. She said, 'Look out the front door. You have ducks on your lawn! I don't want to get out of the car and disturb them.' We looked out the front door, which luckily has glass, and sure enough, there were a duck and a drake, waddling over the newly-mown grass!!

Only a couple of weeks ago, my husband and I went for an evening walk. I commented, 'I think I'd be quite okay if I never again saw snow'.

Bad idea, Brenda.

Next morning he opens the curtains and groans, 'Oh no!'. Fat flakes were falling and soon our green lawns were covered in white!!

Shoe trees

Shoe trees... surely a strange name for a very useful item. Yes, I've just been putting away my winter clothes, boots and shoes. Of the former, I have a pair that still garner compliments although they are now about twelve years old. The lace-up shoes are only a year or two younger. These are showing signs of wear, but are still useful to me.

As you may guess, both pairs are of the old-fashioned leather sole variety that could be taken to the shoemaker to be mended, to have new heels or soles put on. These days of course even expensive footwear often has composite soles glued on which means there's nothing much to be done but throw the shoes away when they get down at heel or whatever.

So I'm grateful for my shoe trees, one pair of which must surely be heading towards antique status, because I inherited them from my mom. She taught me to take care of my clothes, and that has stood me in good stead. Mind you, when I was a teenager and pounding the pavements in London, my shoes didn't last that long. It's a strange thing, but some people are harder on shoes than others. I've often wondered why this should be, and what the reason is. I don't think I tread particularly heavily!