Yes, Mother’s Day has come and gone. Families gathered to honor their moms with flowers, boxes of chocolate, maybe even cookout’s and homemade ice cream. However each observed the event, it was meant to show appreciation to the woman who not only brought them into the world, but who also diapered their bottoms, kissed away their boo-boo’s and exclaimed with delight over the hard wrought C’s on their report cards.

My infant memories are of the stories I made up, the stories read to me and the night sky coloured by fires, the aftermath of incendiary bombs.

I grew up first in Kent and then Surrey from where I visited ‘the sights’ such as St Pauls Cathedral, the Tower of London, Westminster Cathedral, Dick Whittington’s stone on Highgate Hill and St James Park.  In the countryside, to name a few, I visited Hampton Court, Richmond, Windsor and Eton.  My heritage inspired my love of history.  I read voraciously and my imagination grew.