Most Commented Family Blogs (545)

Finally the agonizing times are over.

She smiled and said goodbye and for one last breath, she's with our Lord.

May she rest in peace.

Thanks all for your prayers.

She asked us all (family and friends ) to celebrate. But even that is not easy. I still cried but deep down very happy. Her two years fight is over.

God Bless you Shannon.

Your strength inspired us all. We love you.

Note : She's 52 years old, smoked for 30 years. Only stopped two years ago but her body was too far gone, health wise.

We were in Miami last weekend doing more house renovation to prepare for a sale. One thing needed was to pressure clean the sidewalk and front porch. My helper insisted doing this project and pushed me aside. She's got control of the pressure now. How much pressure? It would appear to be 1800 psi.



I had no choice but to run to Home Depot for some supplies...

When my husband first died, I visited his grave daily, then weekly, and then, it became just special dates...holidays, his birthday, and our anniversary. I placed a baseball cap at the base of the flower vase, (cut a hole in the middle of it) so, it would fit..It changed with the season..as did the flowers..Bucs, Rays, or Lightning...I purchased a double plot...with his plaque..and a single slab of granite..joined together...where I will one day reside...The slab of granite began cracking..and that is where the flower vase is located..my figuring was when our children visited us..they could place flowers for both of us..Kill two birds with one stone..so to speak. I haven’t been by the cemetery in quite some time..I have since moved further away, and I just did not have the need to, as I once did.

My oldest daughter and I met for brunch today, then went by the cemetery to pay our respects. The crack in the granite has grown so big..that the flower vase is now gone...so, we just laid the flowers on the grave. The cemetery was very busy..Lots of sons and daughters stopping by to see Dad.

I still talked to him...told him I was doing well...and, I think he would be proud of our family..and what a fine example he was to our children...We are who we are, in part because of him.

Picture it - I'm renting out my spare room because I need the extra cash right now, okay?

Tenant scored a hat-trick this morning. Went out leaving the electric shower switched on, skid-marks in the loo, and the hair-trap in the shower clogged with hair, so the water couldn't drain away.

a) increase his rent to include a cleaning fee?
b) scream like a fishwife?
c) ???

I'm not used to living with someone. Is this standard guy stuff? Sure as hell not with the men I know.

This lil guy grows daily in leaps and bounds.

From this:



To this in 9 weeks:

Oh where oh where can loveuallnite be? Oh where oh where could he be ? If anyone knows please tell me I can't seem to find he

IT goes without saying mums are the ones who teach us love and care...and dads are there to show u discipline. Some do both, Id like to say I had that balance although my dad was an a** I respected both for what to be and not to be.

When I lost my dad I didn't care, never loved him, but my mum was the biggest shock. As kids,teenagers and into our 30 we don't see them as passing, so take things for granted.....don't !. ,

I was going through some old stuff and found the speech I wrote for her funeral...thought I'd share.


Jeremy clarksons mum invented Paddington bear
Mike nesbit mum from the monkees invented tipex
My mum ? She invented the single finger twix, the two bar kit Kat and an apple that looks like a potato

You see my mum her loved food, and she loved mine to. How my mum discovered these new inventions was simple. When I started my first job at 15 she made me packed lunches.. And as she was placing the sandwiches and 2 bar twix into my pack, she would come over all peckish, and one finger of twix was swiftly eaten before the lid was closed.

As time went on two bars from a 4 bar kit Kat would be found, some days just bread and butter..no filling ! When I asked mum she'd say..oh did I forget to put filling in, how we laughed, and so did my work collueges.
Every day they would wait to see me open my box. Mum got wind of this and one day there was bite marks in my sarnies and another day just a potato , nothing else.

But the real reason for this was mum was hungry, dad had left us and no support, sometimes she had no money for the filing of my sandwiches, yet hid it from me and made a joke of it. I was earning £21 a week then and gave her all my money.

I've dreaded this day all my life, none of us here realise the huge void that has been left in front of us all with mums passing. She suffered so much yet she never ever complained , hid her pain from us all, ever the mother trying to protect us all.

Mum would always asked me if I took sugar in my tea, for over thirty years, yes mum I take one...what I would give now to be at mums house, her asking me if i took sugar, something that irritated me,but something I will never hear from her again.

I know time is a healer but I also know we will be without our rock to guide us, comfort, our world was so rich with her around, nothing can ever replace that.



.....I cried the whole time I read that out...as did most listening..as did I writing it today.

My message is very simple...don't take the ones you love for granted....if you live far..go see them...call them every week...when they are gone...they are gone.

As a small experiment of women’s uniqueness and the special bond between a mother and child, we met up with 6 wonderful women, and asked them to let us blindfold their most precious loved ones. Their children!

How we did it:
The children were guided towards the group of women, and using their senses and intuition asked to try to find the one they believed to be their mother. Anxiety, love and a bit of heartfelt tears filled the room as children from the age of 3-9 tried and succeed in finding the one and only they could call mum!

All women are unique in shape, personality and heart, and so is the beautiful connection and precious love we saw this day.

Celebrate the woman in your heart



Incredibly heartwarming and beautiful.......

One crazy thing I like...people broadcasting from home. I get to see their kitchens, living rooms, etc. I want Fallon's wallpaper. Wonder what the rest looks like cause it seems to be a wild house for decor.
When I was a child, we made runs into town sometimes to ship dad's work by train. I picked it up from mom to be a peeping Tom as we drove down the streets. We would look for un-curtained windows to see what a living room or kitchen looked like.
There are lots of home magazines. But, I don't want to see some staged, perfect room done by some professional. I want to see how real people decorate. Rooms that the average person arranges.
So this is my positive, getting to read book titles in the background, see their kitchen counter is as cluttered as mine or their paneling or wallpaper. Real, not fake rooms. Genuine lived in homes where families live and gather and share.

On windy days I often think back to an event that took place long, long ago when I was but a boy and health and safety was still in short trousers. The drama that I am about to unfold for you took place on the 85th birthday of my best friend’s grandfather.

Alan’s granddad was a small, slightly built man but surprisingly sprightly for his age. In those days 85 was an good age to have reached and the family had decided that the occasion should be marked with more than the usual victoria sponge and yet more pairs of socks and pants. They could have organised some sort of surprise for him but it no doubt seemed easier just to ask him what he would most like to do on his special day. I think they expected him to take time to think about his birthday treat but when he came back with an instant reply they were both surprised and regretful that they didn’t take the trouble to organise a surprise, after all. In a manner that sounded almost rehearsed the old man stated that the only thing he wanted -and his tone of voice strongly implying the only thing he would settle for- was to perform a parachute jump. Anyway, to cut a long story short, and spare me the the trouble of making one up, the family accepted the inevitable and Alan’s dad organised the parachute jump.

Before Alan’s granddad was allowed to make the jump it was necessary for him to attend a training session; which he got through with no problem, apparently. The instructor did have one or two safety concerns, but, after the old man’s agreeing to remove his false teeth beforehand, he seemed to be satisfied that it was safe to go ahead.

The event was to take place on a Wednesday morning. Luckily, it was the school holidays and Alan invited me along to watch the spectacle. So there we all were, about a dozen of us standing in a field looking towards the skies. At first there was just a faint, distant drone, but then appeared a spec in the sky which very shortly became identifiable as a small aircraft. Up till then it had been a fine early June morning, barely a cloud in the sky and very still. Just before the aeroplane was over the field, though, a breeze seemed to come out of nowhere.

The plan was for Alan’s granddad to jump first, followed very soon after by the instructor. It was only when the chutes opened that the flaw in the plan became apparent. The first thing we noticed was that the instructor was descending noticeably quicker than the granddad. The second thing we noticed was that the granddad’s progress seemed to be more horizontal than vertical. As I mentioned earlier, Alan’s granddad was not a very substantial man, and it now became obvious that the degree of his insubstantiality had not been adequately taken into account.


As I watched I was reminded of a dandelion seed floating on the wind, after being blown free from the fluffy pom-pom of the flower head. Alan’s dad got in his car and tried to follow but the roads, of course, didn’t always run in the direction he wanted to go, so a certain amount of predicting the final destination was called for. He was never going to get it right, no one could have.

The granddad of Alan’s adventure came to a undignified end when he clattered into the dustbins behind the chiropodist’s on the High Street. Now this was an amazing coincidence because he had an appointment at that very chiropodist’s that very afternoon. The commotion brought the staff running out to see what had happened almost immediately. After a short period of questions and explanations, granddad was whisked inside and given a mug of very sweet tea; which was the remedy for most things in those days. The staff couldn’t have been better, they brought forward his appointment and treated his corns there and then.

This is a true story and everything happened exactly as I have described.