Vignettes - Issue I - Mum
“The best advice I ever got was from a wealthy Jewish woman who told me “Pauline, never look up to anybody but never look down on anyone either.” That’s my philosophy: it’s the person not the pay packet.”
It’s drizzling when I arrive at Mum’s house for our chat. It’s a light mist that’s barely perceptible, except on the leaves of the plants that surround her deck and in the darkening of the steps leading down to the lawn. Typical that it would pick this day to rain as Mum had chosen her park-like back yard for our chat. I see that she’s nervous, even though it’s just me; she’s fidgeting with her clothes and talking even faster than usual. I know that she’s self-conscious in front of the camera and that I haven’t given her much information about what we’ll be doing or why: I just told her that I was starting a new project that was close to my heart and that I wanted her to be my first subject. Like pretty much everything I have ever asked her to do throughout my life, the words “sounds good” slipped out of her mouth almost before I was done asking. We start out by sitting with one another on the deck but it’s crowded with her pot plants, patio furniture and the ridiculous amount of toys stored on the deck in the winter for my daughter, Daisy. Instead, we embrace our Britishness and move our chairs out onto the lawn anyway; it’s really not raining that much. (I keep the lens of my camera pointing down, though.) My Mum is a unique character, of that I’m sure anyone who has met her would agree. She’s just a leetle bit crazy, always game for an adventure and has this unfailing effervescence and positivity that is equal parts inspiring and (sometimes) downright
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