A MOTHERS DAY TRIBUTE

Whilst toasting all mothers on their special day, I pay particular tribute, love and respect to mine. Muriel McCready, nee Watson. Born near Newcastle UK, but immigrated to Melbourne Australia as a toddler and was an Aussie through and through. We always had a gum tree in the back yard.

Muriel Married Irish seaman John McCready in Melbourne and they immigrated to New Zealand late 1930’s, eventually settling in Wellington where John was a waterside worker. Whilst a fun loving, joking, singing bloke, John was also a drunk who spent most of his earnings on mates and booze and was often violent. The family never owned a house or car and Mum was left to raise four children on her own. Mum worked in factories and at home knitted beautiful jerseys and cardigans to earn money to keep the family afloat.

We always had beautiful gardens, mostly containing plants, “acquired” by Mum during her evening stroll through the more expensive parts of Thorndon.

I didn’t realise it at the time that Mum was the family rock. I look now at family photographs and despite the family’s lack of money, I see how beautifully we children are dressed. This was all from Mum’s earned income. Mum was direct, tough, but warm, supportive and to me, a mentor.

At aged 15 we were evicted from our rental home in Thorndon as the owners had other commercial plans for the property. We were about to be homeless. My mother then sat on the steps of Parliament until the Minister Of Housing agreed to see her. From her efforts we went on the state housing list and were immediately given temporary accomodation in a three roomed hut at Trentham Camp. After a year there we were, once again thanks to my persistent mother, allocated to a state house in Nae Nae, Lower Hutt.

 As we children became adults and paved our own lives we saw little of Mum. Dad died suddenly aged 71 in 1971 and Mum was on her own. Only my younger sister Heather kept regularly in touch with Mum. Heather and her husband Lawrence had her visit them in the Wairarapa and Mum became Nana to their children. Apparently Mum’s ability to” acquire”  plants had not diminished with age.  

It was only on a visit to see her in 1990, after she had been without Dad for nearly 20 years, I suddenly realised  how little money she had and she was just surviving from day to day. At last I woke up and gave her some support, something I should have realised she needed and responded to years earlier.

Muriel McCready passed away in 2001 aged 84. I will always remember Mum as a wonderful person, mentor and mother.