‘I wouldn’t say I’m a mummy’s girl, but I have grown to have a tremendous appreciation of her as a woman. I was very much a daddy’s girl’ – Gwyneth Paltrow
It’s well known that I’m a total daddy’s girl and as such means I don’t talk about my brilliant mum often enough.
She’s quite possibly the strongest woman I know, who raised me and my brother alone in a foreign country while dad worked and yes they may have once dropped me off at Brownies that had been cancelled then went off to drink cocktails but what that taught me was to never underestimate the importance of a good cocktail.
She has impeccable fashion sense and when we go shopping together (which isn’t often enough) she’s the type of person that will pick out something that I wouldn’t even look twice at something, insist I try it on, and of course it will look amazing. She literally knows me better than I know myself sometimes.
She’s not just my mum, she’s everyone’s mum. She’s the Sharon Osbourne; My friends have also become her friends and she looks after them all like the a protective lioness. Where lots of people would cringe at the thought of having their mum on their hen do, my mum was the life and soul of the weekend and was the last one standing on the revolving dance floor in reflex dressed in an 80’s pink shell suit. She’s earned her place as one of the girls, and quite rightly so!
Killing the 80’s look with Ang & Janine
We bicker a lot, because we’re so similar. And more and more I catch myself doing things or saying things that sound just like her. And I shudder at first, but then I smile because as far as role models go, if I can be half the woman she is, I will consider that a success.
My dad, who’s always had a much better way with word than I do summed it up perflectly at the speech he made at Dave and mine’s wedding
It has been evident to me for many years that it is our women that underpin family life. They provide the stability and structure, and very often the common sense, that enables a family to thrive. Helen could not have had better role models. I can go back to her Great Grandmothers. Wonderful, strong, loving women who held their families together in circumstances very different, thankfully, from those that face our girls today. Her Grandmothers embodied all of the qualities that we associate with that treasured relationship of grandparent and grandchild.
Her Mum is the rock on which our family has been built, and her nurturing has allowed it to grow and flourish for over thirty years. Since the day we met she has, to quote a wonderful old Irish phrase, made me more than I am. It is Siobhan’s example that I am certain Helen will draw on without even realising that she’s doing it.
If our family were a duffle bag she’d be the little plastic toggle that holds it all together. Not only is she a fantastic mum, wife, mother-in-law, sister, and aunty but she’s also one of my best friends.
Happy 60th birthday mum! We all love you very much!
