Tomorrow: 11th September 2010 would have been my Mum’s 70th birthday. Unfortunately she died in 1975 when I was 12 and my brother and sister were 7. She had a headache one Saturday morning, went to bed, became unconscious and was then was taken to hospital in the evening in a coma. I know because I sat in the bedroom with her the whole time. The hospital switched off the life support machine on the Tuesday. She was 34.

We had a week off school, I think it was half term anyway and then it was back to normal life. But, of course, it wasn’t normal at all. I don’t think any of us, her children, have really ever recovered, we’ve just learnt to cope with it, to get on with our lives….until last year when my lovely brother took his life. He didn’t say, but I’m sure that ending up motherless at the age of 7 had something to do with it, and all that followed: stepfamily, bullying, neglect and much more.

My sister and I are still around thank goodness, now trying to make sense of life without my brother. It’s not easy but it’s what our Mum would have wanted.

How I wish that she had lived to see us grow up and have children of our own. Ten lovely grandchildren that she never met.

Happy Birthday Mum!!