Happy birthday Mum

Mum’s my Super Hero, this poem I wrote for her – happy birthday Mum X   …   A super hero is someone who drops in at precisely the right moment and takes you up and out and beyond yourself  .  with no need for detail or explanation  .  because they already know  .  A super hero is real enough to welcome your show of pain  .  and cradle the broken pieces  .  should you fall apart  .  A super hero is buoyant enough to carry you with no show of strain  .  and remain solid and loyal throughout your endless cause  .  A super hero doesn’t fly in and fly out  .  but hovers quiet and long  .  and never leaves even when they go  .  And the super hero’s words not only catch and soothe you  .  but wrap around shoulders made soft and light  .  and keep you forever strong.      Feel free to pass this poem on to your super hero…

Last year mum was very ill and I feared like nothing else, because it was all but certain – that she would go.  Roles were reversed during this enormously difficult time and I saw in myself, my Mum and all she’d given me throughout my life.   And I had to grow up in one hell of a hurry to be there for her as she’s been for me.  Only now do I completely understand how hard that must have been for her at times.   I am strangely so grateful for that year, for the push it gave us both to be completely open and honest and deeply intimate.   A gift I will treasure – along with the refreshed life she breathes.