iRelle

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Let me tell you a little story about my mum.

She had breast cancer, and she died… one week ago, the seventeenth of August. But that’s not the story. The story starts as far back as I can remember…

Once upon a springtime, there was a lady who watched her garden eagerly for the first signs of bulbs – little green shoots would pop up through the dirt, or the mulch – or even underneath the weeds, because some years the short winter days would be too full to get out into the garden to keep it tidy. The shoots grew, and she kept watching. Tight little buds would start to swell on the stems, and she’d start to exclaim about the daffodils.

‘They’re almost out… Spring is nearly here!’

One year, after a dreary Summer and a long, bitter winter, she could hardly stand by herself. Her eyesight was failing, and her breath was short. But one Sunday morning she looked out the kitchen window and – with more animation in her voice than I’d heard for days – cried out,

‘Oh, There’s a hyacinth out there!’

The very next day, an ambulance pulled into the drive not two meters from that Hyacinth, and she was bundled into the back on a stretcher. She was leaving the house she’d lived in for thirty five years for the last time – and as they closed the doors she mustered up enough breath to say,

‘Look… the daffodils are nearly out.’

I didn’t spend much time at home the next day, and that night I spent at the hospital with her. The nurses roused me at six to tell me that she’d slipped away while I slept… comfortable at last.

When the car pulled into the drive at home that morning, the daffodils were out. Turning their heads towards the early morning sun, nodding golden yellow smiles in the breeze.

Five days later, at the cemetery, my cousin pointed to the plaque naming the row of graves where Mum was to be buried. At Carr Villa, the lawn cemetery is mapped out with plant names. Would you be even a little surprised to know that Mum’s grave is in Daffodil row?

I know I’ll be looking every year, waiting for the first signs of green pushing through the ground, waiting to say,

‘Look… the daffodils are nearly out!’

Daffodils are the symbol of the Cancer Council, representing hope, joy and new beginnings. Daffodil Day this year is on Friday, the 26^th of August. If you can, If you would like to – please take part.

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