Mum's birthday

Wow what an amazing day - my mum's birthday party.
Okay first we need a little history lesson. 8 years ago when Mum had breast cancer she said that if she made it to the age of 70 she was going to have a BIG party. Well last year, her 70th, for many reasons it got put off and put off until it ended up being Tony, the kids and I taking her out to dinner. This year her cancer has returned with a vengeance and she has bony metastases in numerous places and has had radiotherapy and chemotherapy but we have been told that we cannot stop this. Anyway to cut a long story short she commented how she really regreted not having a get together with her friends for her 70th. To which my response was "Well lets have a 71st!"
This may be the last birthday we get to celebrate with Mum so I wanted to make it special so the guest list included those that had been so important to her. We had a lunch time party at my house (Mum doesn't cope well by evening time) and we managed to gather most of her nearest and dearest.
* Noelene and Keith Larsen - They were at school with Mum and Noelene played basketball with Mum as teenagers/young adults for many years. They have always been great friends to Mum and we spent many a school holiday with the Larsens and the Riggs
* Dorothy and Tony Rigg - have known Mum for about 35 years since they moved in around the block from us in North Nowra.
The Larsens, the Riggs and our family spent holidays, christmases, birthdays, weddings etc together. They have always been a massive part of our families lives and great support to Mum.
* Gloria and Col Horn. Another couple who were neighbours of ours and who became in integral part of our lives. Gloria and Col moved to Sydney as part of Col's job in the police force.
We have many a funny story to tell growing up and 99% of them involve these above three families.
* Joy Herbert. Mum met Joy when both their boys wer einvolved in scouting and they became good friends who have supported each other through the tough years of raising teenage boys and through heartbreaks and good times.
* David and Tanya. Dave is my cousin and Uncle Les' oldest son. Mum's biggest regret was knowing that her brother would not be able to join us as he passed away recently. When I rang her to tell her Dave and Tanya were coming over from Cowra she was soooooooo excited.
* Michael, Rylee and Elijh. Uncle Les' other son. This one was a surprise - Mum's face just totally lit up when she saw him. He had worked a night shift in Goulburn and then travelled down just for Mum.
I am so grateful to these two boys for the effort they made and for being there for Mum.



It was a big undertaking and took a lot of organising and work and I really could not have done it without the help from people who assisted with the cooking and especially to Tony who not only spent time srubbing and cleaning during the week as I worked every day but who spent hours in the kitchen and cleaning up . I seriously don't think I could have managed this without him.

But the work was all worth it to see Mum so happy and she said she was so blessed to be surrounded by those dear to her.

Happy Birthday Mum