Super Mum

Had a great night last night at a friend’s 50th birthday party. Shirley has always been one of these super mums, who just copes with everything including four kids. I remember once being at her place and she is simultaneously cooking dinner, making sandwiches for lunches the next day, mediating arguments between a couple of kids, making sure others are leaving the house with the right gear, and also the kids having three or four friends there too, so the general noise level resembled a rock concert. I would not have lasted half an hour.

Anyway just had to share a great story from her eldest, Katherine, which was regaled to use last night, that summed Shirley up perfectly. A few years ago Katherine was due at a recital, where she was to play the violin. She was due there at 7 pm for a 7.30 pm start and there had been huge delays due to a crash, so it was 7.25 pm and she was almost there when a police car pulled out and signalled them to pull over.

Katherine related how Shirley not only pulled over quickly, she jumped out of the car, ran towards the Police car hammering the windows. As we don’t live in the US, the officer didn’t shoot her, but wound down the window to have Shirley exclaim “Daughter due at violin recital, can’t be late, just wait here please and I’ll be back”. Shirley then jumped back in the car and took off down the road leaving behind a rather speechless officer.

20 minutes later Shirley returned to the spot, having got Katherine there just on time, to be annoyed the officer was no longer there. No doubt he decided one encounter was enough!

Just as amusing, for me, was when we left and my mate Chris was trying to wind Katherine up by suggesting that her brother David gave a better speech than her. Katherine’s response was along the lines of “But you’re a ginga, so who cares what you think”. Chris had no comeback to this.