ManicMammy's Blog

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Happy Birthday

Posted on | March 18, 2010 | 2 Comments

Today is my mam’s birthday. I love this photo of her.

Taken 35 odd years ago, when I guess I was nearly 6 and she was almost 28. I am the eldest of 7 kids and there’s only 10 years between myself and my youngest brother. Needless to say, it was always loud and busy in our house growing up. I love being part of a large family which I guess has, in part, lead to my being the mammy to 5 darlings.

My mam, or “ma” as we called her when we wanted to annoy her, rocks. She was born in the “big snow” of 1947. She has always said she’d love to have studied medicine at university, but her dad’s business went belly up around the time she did her Leaving Cert, so university wasn’t an option. She started work in the council where she met my dad. When they got married she had to stop work as was the rule there in those days.

This is the woman who decided to redo maths and business organisation as Leaving Certificate subjects the year I was doing it. Despite having to look after us 7 and dad, she got A’s in both. She then went on to qualify as an accounting technican. She’s a bridge shark and has always instilled in me the importance of being independent and having a life and interests of my own apart from my kids and family.

I admire her “get on with it” attitude. She hates waste and is always recycling and remodelling stuff to use elsewhere. She is the person I ring when I’m up or down and that I can rely on to travel down and mind my kids when I need a break. She says she prefers it when I’m not here as then she rules the roost with my children.

My dearest husband has been totally dumbstruck with her innovation of lettuce in curry. ;-) Despite a penchant for lettuce and garlic she does cook a mighty fine curry it has to be said. Said curry was a staple in college when much appreciated tupperware was filled, frozen and defrosted throughout the week.

She’s a divil for the Irish Times Crosaire crossword and stays up most nights till after midnight so she can print off the latest version and more often than not, complete it before bedtime. She blames me for getting her started on it, but she is now much more proficient at it than I ever was.

Happy birthday darling Mammy, as Síofra would say “You’re the best” ;-)

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Comments

2 Responses to “Happy Birthday”

  1. famron
    March 18th, 2010 @ 1:57 pm

    Lovely post MM. Happy birthday Mary!

  2. Catherine
    April 15th, 2010 @ 4:48 pm

    What a lovely tribute to your Mother, she sounds like a great woman.

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