Special Women 1

Having told you most of the details that are arranged for the wedding so far I thought I’d tell you a little bit about some of the guests that are coming – lovely readers I'd like you to meet my “Special Women”:
A few weeks ago I got an email from my Mum that had me jumping up and down and crying with joy*. My second Mum is going to come to our wedding. Mum2 was a lady from my village who answered an advert that my Mum placed in the window of the post office for a child minder**. Mum2 was the only person who answered the ad. They met and talked and Mum2 was given the job. She was to look after me and #2 after play-group, nursery, primary school and junior school. We spent so much time with Mum2 that she did literally become like our second Mum***. She first introduced us to Ribena, she never let us watch the TV while we had our dinner. She used to split my dinner plate in half and bargain with me that if I ate one half I could leave the rest. She would always catch me when I tried swapping food onto the other half, you couldn’t get anything past her. She even had a play park right behind her house. I can’t remember when exactly she stopped looking after us and went back to work****, probably when her own children were old enough not to need her around the house as much. I remember never making the same connection with any of the other women that came into to look after us (gosh that doesn’t sound good they were lovely women they just had extremely high standards to live up to). As you might be able to tell she is a very special lady to our family and was on the guest list before some of my Aunts and Uncles.

Maybe 10 years or so ago her daughter moved to Australia met a man and settled down there starting her own family. Some years later Mum2 and her husband went across to visit, tragically while they were there Mum2’s husband had a heart attack and passed away. Mum2 returned to England and tried to return to normal life. After another couple of years she decided that she didn’t want to be in England anymore and emigrated to Australia to help her daughter and look after her grandchildren. I can completely understand her reasoning and how hard it must have been. I am however massively jealous and still holding out hope that when/if we have children she will come to Scotland and look after them – I don’t think that is an unreasonable hope. Other than our parents there is no one else I would trust as much to look after them.

Australia is quite clearly a very long way away so I wasn’t holding out a huge amount of hope that Mum2 would be able to make it across. Until I got that email from my Mum. She had been on the phone to Mum2 who was worrying about what outfit she would wear and trying to work out her flights. I believe my Mum and Dad are currently trying to co-ordinate her flights from London (where her son and other grandchildren live). So that she has some company on the flight and we can go and collect her from the airport (*grinning* at the thought of seeing her).

*I was on my own in the flat so did actually do a happy dance around the coffee table!
**In the days when you didn’t have to have 100 qualifications and health and safety certificates to be a childminder.
***Luckily my Mum loves her as much as we do so she doesn't mind that we call her our second Mum.
****she went to work in a wedding dress shop, while I was shopping for my dress there were endless times I wished that she could be with me. I envy all the girls that she helped with their dresses because I bet she was the nicest wedding dress shop lady ever!