As I’m coming up to turning 30 years old (Ahh! How did that happen?) I look back and don’t remember much that doesn’t include my children or my husband. But I always remember trips with my mum.
Okay, none of us could drive at the time so it was actually trips with me, my mum and my dad, but he would usually be in a zone of his own driving and listening to The Eagles on repeat. So it ended up being just me and my mum chatting on journeys.
So when The Car People asked me to write about one of my most memorable car journeys with my mum as part of their Thanks Mum campaign, I knew which journey was my most memorable straight away and couldn’t wait to get writing it.
Let’s go back 11 years, when I was 18 years old and helping my mum at their club. After tidying round and sweeping floors, I decided that I’d help out with bottling up so my mum didn’t have to do it all on her own. My dad had recently had knee surgery so couldn’t manage the stairs to the cellar so just my mum and I go to bringing up all of the bottles to fill the fridges.
As the usual clumsy person I am, I fell, going upstairs, with 8 glass bottles in my hands. Now I’m sure you can imagine that this didn’t end well and it didn’t. I ended up severing a tendon in my finger. After this happened I don’t remember much. The sight of blood sent me in and out of consciousness and I just remember being put into the back of the car with my mum.
All, the way to the hospital she help my hand and cuddled me as I woke and went back under. Seeing my finger flop about with no control over it made me feel queasy but my mum was there, telling me stories about any rubbish she could think about to try and keep me awake.
It wasn’t a long journey at all, but it felt like forever, and just in that time, all I could hear was my mums voice talking to me about anything and everything – her wedding day to my dad, the day she gave birth to me and telling me how I was never to touch a glass bottle, or use stairs, ever again as her nerves just couldn’t take it.
In all of this time, the calm soothing words took my mind off what was going on and settled my heart-rate so I didn’t pass out any more. We arrived at the hospital and I went straight in to emergency surgery to fix my tendon, 10 weeks and a lot of physio later, my finger was able to be used again, except in the winter when it frigging hurts like hell.
But after all this time, even when it does hurt, I don’t look back and remember being in pain, seeing masses of blood, or even the actual fall on the steps. I just remember my mum, doing exactly what mums do best, sorting shit out!
Can't beat mum's for clearing up after us -mines no longer here but I do remember one of her driving lessons – She drove straight into a goal post !!!- She had no more lessons after that