Tower and Town, August 2016 (view the full edition)My MotherWould you like to write about your mother...? Out of the blue I received a kindly worded letter through my postbox from an old school teacher and friend and after several days thinking it over I decided to take up the offer. Honoured, scared, excited, daunted and privileged were just a few of the emotional responses I experienced when thinking about how to tackle this task. The great irony of trying to write this piece and do my mother justice by it is that she is the person that I would have counted on to help me write, check, highlight the good and bad parts but most of all encourage me to do it to the best of my ability! When thinking about the qualities my mother possessed there is one word in particular that jumps out at me - compassion. The time that she dedicated to helping those that needed it far exceeded any professional requirements and the true personal connection that she made with many of her students and colleagues was always evident when she received frequent and random life updates! I certainly didn't understand or appreciate this at the time but the levels of trust others put in her and the empathy that she had was truly astounding and humbling. Her dignity, sense of duty and honesty was the most wonderful example to be given and I hope that when faced with even a fraction of the difficult life circumstances she faced my sister Anika and I can respond as she would have done. Her ability as a mother to unlock our problems, fears and make them more manageable was akin to something of a sixth sense. A word of encouragement (stern or relaxed if needed!) was never far away and with this I feel that it always created a wonderfully safe and thriving environment for us to grow in. In such a short article it is impossible to encapsulate someone who means so much to me but I guess this also feeds in to one of her most important life lessons that she gave me- that trying is the most important part! And just between you and me despite various youthful protestations it turns out that she was right about pretty much everything! Anil Sud |