For Mum ..................

 ........... 12th November 1930 ..............

Today is, or would have been, my Mum's birthday - I'm not sure how that should be worded - it is still the day of her birth but is it still her "birthday" now she is no longer here?  Whichever, she would have been 85 today.

It will be the first time in my living memory that I have not spoken to her on her special day - wherever I have been in the world, whatever I have been doing, since I moved away from home at age 17, the early morning birthday phone call was set in stone - I remember one year it was five minutes past midnight - I never missed and she never missed mine either.

It's now an unbelievable 5 months since she died - seems like yesterday but also seems so long ago ..... time is a strange thing. 
I woke up actually crying this morning, my face and the pillow wet with tears - I don't remember what I must have been dreaming.

Mum was my strength, my inspiration, my character.
   
She loved me through good and bad, never wavering in that love.

She was the wind beneath my wings, she let me fly and she waved me off.
When I crashed and burned (which I did more than once), she picked me up, put out the flames and helped me rebuild those wings to send me off again. 
 
I owe her so much.
   
She was not the perfect mother, I was certainly not the perfect daughter but we had love, we had mutual respect, we had laughs, we had silliness and we had each other. 

I miss her terribly.

So, Happy Birthday Mum - this is one of the last roses from the garden and it's for you.  
Thank you for the love you gave me over my 63 years on this earth.  

I love you.

~ Anni ~