Monday 18 April 2011

April A to Z blogging challenge Olive

My mother’s name was Olive. My father used to call her Ollie - my eldest niece thought her name was Holly!
Olive was born in 1904 in Hampshire. This photograph was taken before the outbreak of the First World War. 
She and my father married in 1927. They had three children, of whom I am the youngest and the only one still living. The three children presented them with eight grandchildren and, by the time my mother died in 2001, thirteen years after my father, there were thirteen great-grandchildren.

Olive was good with children – calm and kind and fun. Children relaxed on her lap or in her arms. She taught us card games and dots and boxes, shove ha’penny and Ludo, Scrabble and Monopoly. She and my father encouraged us to be observant and to look beyond the obvious. She was an accomplished needlewoman and had a sweet, true singing voice. I remember growing up and singing with her in the kitchen.

I think about her on most days but particularly on this day, my birthday. I was a late and unplanned addition to the family and Olive always said, ‘Children bring their own love’. I learnt a lot from her. I miss her.

9 comments:

  1. What a beautiful post!

    Happy Birthday!

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  2. You have some wonderful memories of your mother. I really like the photos, too.

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  3. Very sweet - nice pictures. Lovely memory:)

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  4. This was a lovely remembrance. Your parents sound like they were wonderful people who left a positive mark on this world. We should all aspire to be as much.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out
    Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge

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  5. belated happy birthday and thank you for sharing your lovely memories

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  6. What a lovely piece of remembering! How wonderful to grow up in a nurturing environment where one is encouraged to look beyond the surface of things. Your parents must have been so proud of how well you turned out.

    And a very Happy Belated Birthday to you! Hope it was a special day for you...:)

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  7. I am sooooo sorry I missed your birthday!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!! Passover started yesterday and I wasn't online reading blogs at all....I am so sorry!
    Your story about your Mom touched me so much...what a pretty lady and what a wonderful mother she had to have been. My Dad also passed in 2001....the wanting to call and missing them never goes away...but she is with you, she sees you, believe that! (((((hugs))))

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  8. Another belated Happy Birthday!
    What a wonderful tribute to your mother, she sounds like a very special person.

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  9. Happy Belated Birthday.


    beautiful write…

    Invite you to join poets rally week 42 by sharing a free verse today.

    You will love the encouragements you get once you are in and make commitment.

    Your poetry rocks!

    awards for you! Pick two of your choices!


    Hope to see you in!
    Have A Blessed Easter!
    xxx

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