Not a lot happens on a sugar cane farm. That didn’t stop my mother writing to all her children once a week.
At boarding school I remember receiving a letter in which she described the antics of a skink who lived under the fridge. He would retrieve sultanas she threw to him and hoard them in a little pile.
Mum wrote the details of her daily life. I recall many descriptions of baking days, frightening snake stories, bush fires and people she’d met on her weekly trip to town.
It was not until my father died that my own writing habit began in earnest. I challenged myself to post a letter to my mother every Monday.
This initial challenge was made more daunting when my brother told me: “Jules I hope you realise Mum reads your letter to everybody who visits her, including the cleaner.”
That is really how I learnt to keep it short, keep it conversational and interesting and post it every Monday.
Several years later my husband introduced me to the new term “blogger”.
This new style of writing felt like a home-coming – back to my writing roots and the mother who taught me about writing in first person.
Now in her late eighties my mother recently visited my website, read my blog and posted a comment. My post about her and her response are here on this link to Sewing Circle.
I wonder what your mother taught you?
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My Mum taught me to always smile, and to tease just a little bit. She would embarrass me to death at high school in the canteen by telling my male friends they were good girls and telling them to cut their hair. My mates thought she was good value.
I once read a children’s book titled “Brave Women” with my daughter. It was a recount of the generations of mothers before the writer’s time…My daughter and I enjoyed it..it made us wonder what the lives of my mother, her mother, her mother’s mother…etc were like…My mother’s mother passed away when my mother was only six…and yet she was able to recount something about her…now my own daughter is more than seven years old…All mothers are very different in character..Many mothers share similar life experiences with their daughters..many like myself, don’t…However vastly different our life experiences may be..it does not make us any more distant..the bond lies deep…My other grandmother obtained her driving license when she was 80 years old! That happened 30 odd years ago…Nowadays the authorities would not let that happen..I’m glad I was around to hear about it when it happened! Happy Mother’s day to all!!