Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Happy Birthday MoM!!!

Today would have been my mom's 61st Birthday...So I am going to share one of her time honoured traditions with you...

In our family it is a common occurance to try and humiliate and frighten half to death a member of our immediate family...

My sister has a huge talent for this, putting in many hours to complete her task and on several occasions made me pee myself.....no joke.....but she comes in second to my mother...

I arrive home one day, put my key in the door and hear the usual.  The T.V. is on in the living room and I can smell a stew going...Yumzer I think to myself..I love my mom's stew..there is nothing better....

Anyway...I walk into the living room throwing my belongings on to the couch and make my way into the kitchen to steal some stew...

I say steal because It's a known fact that myself and sister will sit there with our civilised bowls of stew with a piece of vienna bread and a glass of milk while we observe my brother sitting there with a half loaf of buttered batch and a pint glass of milk with can only be described as a casserole dish size bowl of stew on his lap...He proceeds to then lash his bread into the stew a whole slice at a time while ramming the whole thing into his mouth...boys will be boys...

So there I am with a nice small bowl of boiling stew wandering into the living-room delighted with myself for two reasons, one I have coveted a delicious meaty bowl of stew before my brother and two I get full control of the remote as I am all alone...or so I thought..

I step into the living room balancing the stew in my hands with a spoon dangling out of my mouth when all of a sudden my mom throws herself out of the cubby hole under the stairs armed with a very large knife and sporting some sort of foam like substance all over her mouth....



Of course the first thing I do is throw the stew all over myself and the room scalding myself in the process...then proceed to choke on the spoon..it's at this point that my mom literally starts choking with the laughter.  As I am crying with the fright she has to run off to pee cause she is so delighted with herself and her achievement... I remember at that point thinking there is something wrong with our little family...

As I sit here on a Sunday morning writing this, knowing that even though every single time she got me with one of her terrifying jokes I wished she wouldn't, I wish she could jump out from somewhere and frighten the living shite out of me again....one more time...

I suppose that if she did that now it probably 'would' frighten the living shite out of me, what with her having passed on...but anyway I know she's out there somewhere watching and that everytime I get a fright she has a laugh about it.............Happy Birthday Mom..I miss you every day!

Day Three After Surgery - My Mom's Diary Entry

This is an excerpt from my mom's diary, only she can explain how this felt:

"Well I have had the tests, I've even had the op.  Ovarian Cancer.  I don't know if I can even spell it right.  It's invaded my body and I'm not sure how to spell it correctly.  For two days I've planned my funeral in my head.  It looks pretty gloomy.

I've a malignant Tumor on one overy, a growth on the other.  the cancer has spread to some fatty tissues that runs across the stomach. they will remove the overy and the fallopian tubes and the womb.  The problem may be that the Tumor is stuck to the bowel.  After the op I feel fine.  I don't feel as though they have taken much.  They haven't...not even one overy.

I'm to have eight sessions of chemo in-between they will try to operate again.

Todays Quote:

This is the true joy of life

Being used for a purpose

Recognised by yourself 

As a mighty one

Being a force of nature

Instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances

Complaining that the world will devote itself to making you happy

You have Cancer...WTF!

How mom felt on day one!

I remember the day I found out my mom had cancer.  It was only a few days after she found out herself.  My mom had told me that she had a cyst on her ovary and that she was going in as an in patient to get it removed.  She told me it was no big deal and she was delighted that someone was eventually doing something about it.

My mom was so convincing she even made jokes about feeling like Sigourney Weaver and getting the Alien out of her.  It's easy to think that things are better than they are when your mother is telling you everything is grand. She's your mother, you think that of all the people who will tell you the truth it would be her.

I know she was only protecting us but one can feel a little disappointed when you find out you are being left in the dark.  The funny thing is I remember when I found out saying to her "why didn't you tell me, I needed to know" and "I feel like a muppet".  This was not about me....My mother was ill and there I was thinking, woe is me, my mom is sick, what am I to do....

Anyway, I knew she was having her "minor surgery" at about 10am and I was in work thinking great she will be so much better after this.  I tried calling her mobile a few times after 11am knowing that if it was minor then she would be out quite soon, I tried again and again into the afternoon.  At about 2pm having worked in a hospital and knowing how to get through to surgeons myself I decided to ring the hospital desk and ask to page the registrar of her surgeon.

Score, I got through.  The registrar picked up and I stated that my mother had undergone surgery and I wanted to know how she got on.  The registrars first reply was "oh yeah, well the tumours were to big to remove, we are going to have to sit down and think of other options"  I was stunned...I replied "are you telling me my mother has cancer" I asked stupidly...."oh God, I'm sorry, your going to have to talk to her consultant" and hung up.

I sat there in a state of shock for what appeared to be ages but it must have been only a couple of seconds.  One of my colleagues passed me and I must have been just staring at the phone receiver because she came over and took it off me.....

The next hour was a blur, I don't know how I got to the hospital but I did and I was sitting by her bed when she woke up...her first words to me were "Is it gone, did they get it"  It was totally heart breaking, but she was a fighter and when I told her no she just asked "OK, what's the new plan"  I just took her hand, gave it a squeeze and said "we fight it"..she didn't want my younger sister finding out she was sick, she was still the baby.

That day was one of the worst in my life.  I haven't had many bad days but that was a bad day.  My one piece of advise to someone who finds out their parent or loved one has been diagnosed with cancer is...don't  think about how this affects you, think about how this affects them, they are the important ones in this situation, you can deal with your emotions later but for right now, its all about them, just be there for them.

Todays quote from my mom's diary:
                            If you only walk where the sun shines you will never complete your journey.
                                                                                                           Unknown