My Mum, “You all right boy” every time I saw her, answer back with some joke or sarcastic remark and she would say, “You’re no too old to have a clip around the ear.”  You see, even though I was a grandfather myself in my sixties, to mum, I was still her boy, that little boy that would be up to no good with his brothers, more often and not covered in dirt, scratches and cuts, gone in the morning and appear again when food was available later in the day, she would be there wanting to know what we had been up to. “Nothing Mum” we would say, all of us looking at each other, as we knew, she would find out what we had been up to, not sure how but she just knew. “If that PC Roper comes round saying you’ve been up to no good, you will have your dad to answer to.” Sometimes he did come round, well he did live next door, so he didn’t have far to come. “Go to bed without any tea” she would say if we had done something wrong. Not that we really cared, because it was our mum and we knew that she loved us really, and we had done wrong and been caught out.

 Sorry for causing you and dad so much grief but you know we always loved you.

Love you always Mum.