A Voyage Round My Mother by Eleanor Stewart

Author:Eleanor Stewart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Published: 2016-09-24T04:00:00+00:00

Interlude

In the spring of 1996 I took my mother to Walberswick in Suffolk, where we had two old-fashioned caravans on a small, pretty – if primitive – site, lying between the village and the beach. It was a favourite holiday destination of the family and I thought she would benefit from a change of scenery. The weather was very fine and extraordinarily she consented to sit outside in the evenings and to join the group of friends who congregated wherever the evening barbeque or drinks were taking place. She entranced them all. She was at her very best, vivacious, dynamic, and held court with what I can only call “aplomb”.

“Isn’t she wonderful?” I was told. “So sweet and interesting.” She talked about India and our family life in Hong Kong with vivacity. She told anecdotes (some of which I had never heard before). A few were positively racy. One of the senior partners in the solicitors’ office in Hong Kong where she worked as a secretary was a large and genial Chinese man. Every evening about 5 p.m. a beautiful Chinese girl arrived to wait for him to finish work. “Oh?” enquired my mother. “Is that his wife, come to make sure he goes straight home?”

“No,” said my mother’s boss. “That’s his mistress come to make sure he doesn’t go straight home.” This story was greeted with howls of laughter and I saw her beaming with pleasure.

She was a great success. I saw her through other people’s eyes.

Because we had two vans, she had her own bedroom and retired early, so we each got some personal space. The ten days passed pleasantly enough but I had to make as many concessions to her as I had to with the children in the past. She didn’t like walking, hated the charming pub, and didn’t want to come to the beach, so it was not a particularly restful holiday for me. A few years later, she expressed some surprise and even resentment that I had not repeated the experience. What I wanted to say was, “I love you dearly but you are such hard work!” I chose not to answer and she didn’t persist.

Friends in Walberswick also expressed surprise that I hadn’t brought my “delightful” mother with me on a second visit!

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