51 weeks since posting this ….

I wonder what my Mum would do today?  Many of you remember her – June Mansell – played lead with a set of 00 brown bowls.  She was tiny with a terrible habit of smoking (!) but a heart of gold and definitely a do-er.  She would knuckle down and get on with it and put herself out to help others at a time like this.

Phone your mother, if they’re still with us, talk to them even if they’re not.  Phone someone else’s mother, phone a dad, phone a friend.  Make someone’s day by letting them hear another person’s voice and not feel so isolated.  The only option is Phone a Friend.  We don’t need an audience vote and it’s not 50:50!

2021 and hardly anything has changed!  Most of us are still without our mothers but we can still pick up the phone and ring a friend.  The lockdown had just started on Mothers’ Day 2020 and we were all staying tucked away in our homes wondering what was happening but sure that we would be free and the pandemic would be over in a few months.  Well, we all got that wrong – from the top of the country down!

Now there is an end in sight.  Only a couple more weeks before 6 of us can meet outdoors!  It will take some adjustment.  We have been without outside company for a year apart from a few short weeks in 2020.  We’ve learned to Skype, Zoom, Teams, Quiz, Kahoot, Yoga, Pilates, Dance, Sing and goodness knows what else online.  It got us through but I, for one, will be pleased not to sit on another Zoom call again!

Mums may not get hugs from their children this year.  They might not get a card or flowers or chocolates but I hope the phone rings and one of your children is on the other end.  We’re sending special thoughts to Carol Bottright’s children as it will be their first year without Carol.  That is a tough milestone.

So, onwards and upwards.  Let’s raise a mug or a glass to our Mums wherever they are and pick up your phone and call a friend for a chat.  Loneliness can affect those on their own or even those in the same household not just on Mothers’ Day.

And finally,  whatever you do today, don’t forget to keep washing your hands and stay socially distanced!  We can’t dispose of those tasks yet but we’re all looking forward to the day when social distancing is knocked off the list!