Mum's Birthday

Its Mum's 86th birthday today, though we actually celebrated yesterday so that we could all go out for lunch together. Any such family occasion is an opportunity to reminisce and of course we did. For a long time I tried to get Mum to write down her memories and even bought her one or two of those books meant for recording life stories and memories for the future - but she never filled them in and so I took to keeping a notebook in my bag and writing things down whenever Mum (or any one of us) remembered something that it would be sad to forget for ever. I did this page from one such memory. During WW2 Mum and her parents lived in Warrington and her Dad worked in the American base Burtonwood. Like many other girls she started courting a GI and they became engaged but in the end Mum just couldn't leave her parents (she was an only child) to live in the US and so they decided to part. She - and I - often wonder what happened to Jim Campbell. We do know he married and was living on Staten Island after the war. Its funny to think that as a war bride by now she would have been living in the US for 65 years! What a difficult decision she had to make all those years ago.

Anyway, Mum really liked the little shawl I knitted for her birthday gift - so that was a success. I packaged it rolled up inside this tube - can you guess what it is! I've been wanting to up-cycle a Pringles tube for ages and was pleased that the shawl fitted perfectly inside. The heart label is from the Waltzing Mouse 'Seasons of Love' stamp set which co-ordinates with Spellbinders Heart and Scallop Heart die sets.

NB: If you read the memory on my digi- page and wonder about "Hiya Red" - Mum was a beautiful redhead!