What my family mean to me #dosomethingyummy

Did I ever tell you about my family?

Well I was born in the north, or as you may better know it, God’s country.  I am the much longed for baby girl born to my poor suffering mother after she had to endure the  extreme misfortune of initially giving birth to not one but a pair of smelly boys.

I lived for my entire childhood secluded in a small Yorkshire town in a three bedroom house with my mother and father, my two brothers, my dog Bess (rest in peace), two rabbits, and the occasional school hamster who stayed with us for holidays.  One exciting summer also involved two Australian soccer players staying with us who were playing in our local football team, mum told me to treat them as if they were my additional brothers, but to be honest I didn’t really like the one’s I had so I prefered to treat these two young aussie boys like Gods.  I was somewhere mid teens, with spots bursting out of every available of my pale skin, puppy fat had taken hold and I was developing lumps and bumps everywhere but every morning those boys stayed with us I kept hoping against hope that one of them would ask me to be their wife but for reasons I have not ever really understood they both flew back to the land of Oz without a second glance.

It’s a sad fact but my parents are everything to me, they taught me right, I learnt the correct pronunciation of grass and bath at a young age, I know to put others before myself and I know that you don’t have a problem if it is one money can solve.

As for the rest of my family, the two smelly older boys; to be honest many years went by before they were more than an irritant on my well-being.  Having two older brothers is quite restrictive on how naughty you can be without being found out.  Plus it took them many years to appreciate the joys of having a little sister, some would argue it was only when they went through puberty and reached a certain age that the benefit of a little sister (with friends) was fully realised.

We didn’t have any real problems as kids growing up, we were lucky; we fought like mad, I hit the teenage years with reckless abandonment and may account for 80% of the grey hairs on my father’s head (60% of them may have occurred when the Australian chaps stayed in our home).  We were healthy and happy when we weren’t screaming blue murder at each other for breathing the same air.  We didn’t have websites like familyhype for support, we just got by on our own.

Our family unit was tested when my father had a heart attack in his fifties, inconveniently he chose to have it in the depths of Cornwall which meant we all drove through the night to reach him, to love him, to be by his side.  That day, that moment, that time when we were terrified one of us would slip away was when the arguments stopped and we saw the binds that tied us together.  He survived, and our family continued, whole in its being.

Not everyone enjoys the luxury of facing a childhood without illness inflicted their lives; we did.

Not everyone gets to argue and fight their siblings through teenage years and get to make up as grown ups; we did.

Not everyone gets to watch their children grow, get married and create families of their own; my parents have.

My family that I grew up within mean as much to me as the one I have been lucky to create for myself, even the smelly boys who now have rather lovely wives whom I am proud to call my sisters.

This post is written as a result of Nickie’s weekly blog prompts to raise awareness of CLIC Sergeants Yummy Mummy Week.    Not all families get to grow as we did.  Children get cancer, they shouldn’t but they do, and charities like CLIC Sergeant do a fantastic job in supporting the children and families and yummy mummy week is a chance to show your support.

 Yummy Mummy Week is a fun-packed fundraising campaign during which mums do something yummy for children and young people with cancer, whilst spending quality time with their own children, family and friends.  Money raised throughout the week will be used by CLIC Sergeant to provide clinical, practical and emotional support for children and young people with cancer and their families.