Posts tagged inspiration

She’s all the things you’d expect me to say.

She’s beautiful. Really, she’s beautiful. She’s sporty. She’s well read. She’s incredibly social. She’s an amazing cook. She’s funny. And she even speaks a load of languages, fluently.

But that’s many people’s mum. Well, maybe.

What makes her special?

• She’s 69 .
• Last year she flew 15 hours to join me for a couple of days skiing in the States.
• She plays club tennis a few times every week.
• She spends every spare minute volunteering her time helping disabled people learn to sail. Better still, she cycles the 2 miles to and from the lake.
• Last night 7 friends spontaneously popped round for a BBQ.

But to me that’s only part of what makes my mum special.
It’s what she does, but it’s not what defines her.

My mum is the woman who, when my parents divorced, started again. This time with nothing…well, except for 4 kids in tow!

She moved villages. She bought an empty shell of an old barn. She went back to teaching. She made new friends. She made a new life.

And it wasn’t easy for her. But slowly, she made it.

She made it because she’s a tough lady. Because she was determined to make a future for us kids.

And now she has an amazing life. A life packed with laughter, conversation, happiness and adventure. She lives in a beautiful renovated barn near a lake. She has an incredible group of friends.

But what she still doesn’t have – and this is where myLovelyParent comes in – is that special person to share it with. 

Now it’s time I did something for her. And not just for her. I know – from months of chatting to hundreds of people, there’s a world of single, older parents out there – all with beautiful stories.

Now it’s about connecting the dots and giving all these ‘oldies’ the chance to meet one another.

If you’d like to share a story about your mum, dad, step-mum, uncle, friend’s friend’s parent – whoever, I’d love to hear from you. I’m happy to make it anonymous if you’d prefer. Mail me on matt@myLovelyParent.com

And seriously – and I’m really not trying to sound like some oddball preacher here! - even if you don’t want to share it, you should definitely spend 10 minutes writing about your own parent(s). It’s so therapeutic!! Ha, I’m not sure I even realised much of this before I started writing it down. Think I’m going to phone my mum to see how she’s doing…