My mother

“Come and puzzle”, she’ll tell me, either face to face, or through a text.

Working on jigsaw puzzles is something my mum and I love to do together. The others in my family will tinker with them a bit, but mostly, it’s just mum and I sitting together for ages trying to put the pieces together. I love how she puts up with my occasional creativity with putting pieces together, and how slow going my efforts are. Doing puzzles together becomes a way I get to spend some time one on one with my amazing mum, and it’s very special and fun.

I really wanted to write about my mum this mother’s day, but I was worried about simply listing all the good qualities most people will write in appreciation of their mothers. I didn’t want my words to sound empty and unoriginal. Hmm. Bit stuck in a moment, and I can’t even ask mum for advice on this one.

So I asked dad (in a text from the next room, how 21st century of me), how I could work around this, and not end up just saying what anyone would say… You know, all the usual things: “She’s increfible… She works so hard… She’s always there for me… etc.”.

So here’s what I’m going to say, based on his reply (classic dad joke).

My mum is increfible.

But to be honest, that is the only completely original thing I can say. Everything else has been used already.

I’m not sure anyone else has ever called their mum increfible… And my mum is the most increfible (which I have just given the meaning of “admirable, wonderful and
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”) woman in the world.

But then there’s everything else, which won’t sound very original. But they are the true bits.

“Increfible” I made up. But the rest… True story.

My mum is incredibly caring, and is reliable to always say, “sometimes [insert child’s name]’s need extra hugs”, whenever we’re having a rough day.

She is one of my best friends. I feel like I can tell her anything, ask her anything, and she will understand. So I talk to her about everything, and she listens.

There have been occasions in the past where people think we’re sisters, instead of mother and daughter. 🙂

She works extremely hard. Not only does she work harder than would be expected at her supposedly part-time job, but she looks after the whole family in a phenomenal way. She does the cooking, and we’ll all try and help her with the cleaning. She has skills in areas most of the family have trouble with. As she once said to our friend Joel, “Some people are finders, and others…” well, you can work out what that makes others like dad and Joel and me. 😀

She’s always there, to give me advice, to teach me, to support me. As my youngest sister wrote for her on mother’s day last year, she is my “problem solver, secret keeper, nurse, sunshine, Best Hug Giver, peace keeper, angel, and my mum.”

I hope to be like her one day.