Letters to the editor: A mother gone but never forgotten

Even decades after she passed away, the woman who reared us will never be far from our thoughts

Mother's Day is a special day when we should cherish the role of the most important person in every family.

I no longer buy cards or presents for my mother on Mother’s Day, as unfortunately she passed away 30 years ago. But I often think about her, not just on Mothers Day. I think of the woman widowed, with two children and another born five days after her husband died. Left without a husband or a home, she reared us in a rented room in another family’s house, as was often the norm at the time, until she got a house of her own. She was both father and mother to us, took whatever work was available, scrimped and scraped to ensure our survival. Nothing was ever wasted, she was recycling before the word was invented. She neither drank nor smoked, she loved her garden and I think she was happy with the way we all turned out. Her name was Nora and she was the best mother that we could have wished for.

John Higgins