My Love, Loves Me…

I am thinking of my mother tonight. Not just because it is Mother’s Day tomorrow, but just because it’s one of those moments when images from my childhood come to mind.

So what comes to my mind…

One of the earliest scenes from my childhood I can remember…. I was probably around 3 years old I think, and I remember wearing favourite ‘home’ dress (a sort of comfy ‘T’ shirt material, dual colour – light yellow top and light green bottom), peering into the kitchen and my mum looking back and smiling at me.

Another early memory I have is one time when I was sitting on the steps, drinking from a porcelain mug. I dropped the mug and broke it, my mum happened to walk on the scene just then, and I broke into tears thinking I would be scolded. But instead she just leaned over and said “it’s okay, it was an accident”. Somehow this memory always touches me.

Then there are short scenes… mum gently patting us awake early in the morning to get ready for school… mum taking us out for afternoon outings to the museum, library, to the park or to the club for a swim… sitting on the kitchen floor helping mum to sift flour onto a newspaper…

Then there are songs which whenever I hear or think of them, my thoughts would always turn to my mother. In our family, my dad usually held control of all types of remotes in the house, including the one for the CD/cassette player. So it was rarely that my mum actually mentioned a particular song that she liked. But these are just a few of the ones I do remember as some of her favourites (I hope I am right).

ABBA’s ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ – so melancholic, especially the line “…sleep in her eyes, her and me at the breakfast table…” and I think of all those times at the breakfast table, so sleepy (sometimes a little grouchy) and completely unaware of how precious those moments were.

Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Scarborough Fair’ – the lyrics always suggested some deep philosophical meaning which I was under the impression only my mum understood. You know how sometimes when you are a kid, you would start the opening line, then mumble and hum through the song until you get to the part of the lyrics you actually know how to sing, and then you would sing that part VERY LOUDLY. That part of this song was “…parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme…”. This part of the song always sticks in my head, because I remember my mother distinctly repeating it for us clearly… my brothers must have made up some other ridiculous rendition of our own (as we frequently used to do) which was why I think my dear mother felt compelled to correct us.

AND…

Nana Mouskouri’s ‘Plaisir d’Amour’ – actually I’m not certain that she specifically liked Nana’s rendition of this song. But I remember that she had always liked Nana Mouskouri’s voice, and that this song was very special as it was the song played on the piano, as she walked down the aisle of Basel Church on her wedding day.

I searched out this song clip, so that I could dedicated it to her…

Happy Mother’s Day, dearest of mums.