Happy Birthday Mum

Today was a day of remembrance in more ways than one for me.
It was my mums Birthday she was born in 1910 and died in 2001 aged 91and 4 days so I was thinking a lot about her and her life. 

As I watched the remembrance service this morning and watched the forces marching by listening to the band playing they suddenly started playing "It's a long way to Tipperary" and I found myself crying because I remembered sitting with mum one day and she told me how in 1941 dad was being sent overseas and they had 2 days leave before embarkation. She went down to Surrey and spent the 2 days with him and his best mate and his wife who she shared lodgings with whilst down there.
They said their goodbyes that last night and went back to their lodgings. Early in the morning the landlady woke them and said "They're going" so they opened the window and people were out to see them off, she said they were marching down the road singing "It's a long way to Tipperary" and as they passed dad looked up and smiled at her and I remember crying and thinking how  must it have felt to see your man going off to war and not to know if you would ever see him again. 
Mum was lucky it may have been 4 and a half years before she saw him again but he came home alive. Not so for the girl who stood beside her who's husband was killed in action. 
Dad always remembered him, his best mate, on this day each year.

The Black and white pic of mum was taken in 1940 (it says on the back) and the other was in 2000.

It would seem I have been blipping 8 years  well 2920 blips with a few misses.