40 Weeks (280 Days) Without My Mum

No longer can your voice and your laughter be heard

yet the wonderful memories we shared

echo like a gentle bird

Ma, I have been spending much of last 40 weeks (280 days), trying to fill your shoes, even though it is impossible, and asking the questions, such as, how did you make us feeling so special and so loved? How did you get dinner on the table every night? How did you do all those selfless things? I could fill a novel with all questions I want you to answer

Ma, 40 weeks (280 days) ago, I realised that there were so many things only you would do for us, only you remembered all our favourite foods and our friends’ names, only you knew how to stand back and allow us to make mistakes and to be independent, as you spent the most valuable life currency of kindness and generosity, on those who you loved

Ma, we thank you for the charmed lives your children lead, since you did that through your example, your protection, your cheers, and even through your admonitions, I learned from you my whole life, I watched how you interacted with people, I witnessed how you worked in kitchen, and I observed how you handled whatever situation life threw at you

Ma, when my heart was weighed down by a grief I never before understood 40 weeks (280 days) ago, your example taught me to give others, what can never be reclaimed once lost, time together, as you instilled in us the values of hard work, compassion, and integrity, and our lives were shaped by your love in countless ways, we could never imagine