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19 March 2012

Posted by DMC on 22 March 2012 in Diary |

The astute reader will realise that I wrote nothing yesterday on Mother’s Day. This should not be confused with Mothering Sunday, a Christian festival which falls on the fourth Sunday after Lent and is celebrated throughout Europe. In the UK however secularly in 17th or 18th century it became the only day that domestic servants were given off to visit their mother church with their own mother and other family members. It was it only day in the year when they were allowed off, as it was before the advent of holidays and on other occasions conflicting working hours often prevented the whole family getting together.

Today, Mother’s Day has little to do with the church and has traditionally become a day when children give cards and presents to their mother thanking them for the love and devotion they have shown them in the previous year

In the 1920s the tradition of observing Mothering Sunday lapsed but was r no evived by the American and Canadian Soldiers during World War II.

Mothering Sunday had continued to be celebrated by the Christian church but it was not until 1950 that merchants saw the commercial advantages of promoting Mothering Sunday and the secular celebration of Mother’s Day merged seamlessly into Mothering Sunday, although strictly they are not one of the same thing. As celebrations will take place on Wednesday, when my mother and Richard are driven down from Shropshire for lunch. I shall certainly give them a glass of champagne and hope that the weather is fine enough to sit in the garden.

Our two children dutifully sent greetings cards to their mother spelling out there deeply felt gratitude for being such a great mum. In Alice’s case the children have every reason for opening their hearts and pouring praise upon her. Of course, inevitably there is a Father’s Day which follows very much the same traditions as Mother’s Day. So far as I know this is a totally secular invention to exploit the commercial aspect. I am very fortunate as I see both children frequently. Chloe and her family were becoming to us for Good Friday will stop father, Karl, will then take them home leaving Chloe to spend a little time with us and returning to her home the following day.

Regular reader is will recall the Dr coming here on 14 March to cut a sebaceous cyst on my shoulder. Yesterday, the district nurse, Claire, came to dress it. However, she was not happy with what she saw and said it would need a further operation making a far deeper cut, under local anaesthetic, in order to get rid of all the oil and pus, as the wound was beginning to show signs of septicaemia. . She obviously thought there was a degree of urgency and suggested she would encourage the doctors come on Wednesday. However, we pointed out that my mother and Richard were coming that day, all the way from Shropshire and clearly we did not want to mess up those arrangements so it was left that she would try for Thursday. I just hope that Dr Lort is happy about carrying out this procedure in my study and will not insist that I either get myself to her surgery or Addenbrookes (both of which of course I could do, using Ollie)

I could not find anything vaguely appropriate for Mother’s Day so I chose this one. Click here to see It’s so good to have someone waiting at home for you.

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