Happy Birthday Mum

On this day 77 years ago in the town of Parkes in the state of New South Wales, a wonderful woman was born, my mother Mavis Jean. She is the eldest of four children but now only herself and her baby brother Francis are left.

When she was about 4 years old her mother and father separated and later divorced, mum, her brother Ronald and sister Dianne went with there mother and lived in the Wauchope New South Wales district. In fact mum lived with her grandmother till she was 14 and her grandmother died, it was traumatic for mum losing her nan as they were very close.

Her father stayed in the Parkes district and later remarried. She had not seen him since she was aged 7 and lost all contact with her father from about age 14. On Saturday 24^th May 1997 mum met her father again after 50 years. She found him living in Blayney NSW, also at this reunion she met, for the first time, her cousin Patricia Ann Crane. Mervyn died 5 months later on the 24^th October 1997.

When mum was 10 years old her mother married Ronald James and pretty much from that time on he was in mums eyes her dad, this is one of the reasons she had no desire to find and met her natural father. She is glad she tracked Mervyn down but he wasn't her dad. Her dad died on the 4^th November 2010.

Sometime in the late 1950's she met Denis and they married on the 19^th November 1960 and had 5 children together of which I am the eldest, she now has 18 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with two more great-grandchildren due this year.

As many know on the 19^th November 2016 her mother passed away aged 95, this affected her a lot and since her mother's passing she has had many health issuers, she is in pain 24/7 and has been for many years and also has had a couple of incidents of delirium and being off with the pixies but things are improving and she takes life one day at a time.

Family is very important to mum and she loves having her family around her, her children are blessed to have such a wonderful, loving and caring mother who we all know is there for us whenever we need her.

In 1978 she suffered a stroke when her youngest child was only 6 weeks old, she was told at the time she may not walk again or have much use of her arm but she made a complete recover from her stroke because she had a new born baby and a toddler and not recovering wasn't an option in her eyes.

Mum has been known as Mae for most of her life, and the name Mae is common in our family now, my sister is Sandra Mae, her daughter is Temika Mae, my daughter is Jessica Mae, and my granddaughter is Sydney-May.