It was about this time of year when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. It certainly did put a dampener on things. Mum loved Christmas. She loved the decorations, the carols, (Her name was Carol!), the festive entertaining and the excuse to dress in something "nice" and drink from crystal wine glasses.. It is strange that for many years she was often ill at Christmas. Of course she had undetected cancer for ten years, so that may have been the cause, but even as far back as my childhood I seem to remember her not being at her best. Maybe she was just worn out by the end of each year. Maybe she was broken, just a bit. As a single mum, mum worked all the time. I have memories of only a couple of holidays that we all spent together. Awesome memories. I was really young. I remember laying in my hessian bunk bed in the tent with a curtain to divide us kids from the grown ups. I remember hearing the laughter. The adults were probably three sheets to the wind, playing cards, si...
Words and pictures.