Nojomo 5 in Nojomo 2014

This is supposed to be a letter which apologises to someone about not telling them something…

I’m far too much of a gob shite for that to be an issue!!

So, this isn’t about something I wish that I had told someone, this is about what I wished I asked someone.

Tally has a phrase that she uses often, it starts with ‘tell me a story about when you were…‘ on to which she adds an age. When she asks I have to work out what year it was and what teacher I had at school/which college I was at/what job I was doing in that era so that I can then link a memory to it.

Sometimes I think ‘oh no, not one if these!’ but I always try to think of a story to tell her because I don’t want her to stop asking. Sometimes I tell her to ask me again later but I love that she asks.

You see, I never asked. I have snapshots of my mum’s life but not a lot and I wish I had asked, I wish I understood more of her childhood. I think she would tell us things that would offer advice or help eg. my sister was a very conscientious student and my mum told her a story that she never told me (I would nothing if i could away with it - it wasn’t relevant to me). You see, my mum’s degree was in German language and as part of the degree she was supposed to attend university in Germany for a year. She actually attended for a day and discovered it was as dull as dish water. The next day she went to an orphanage and offered her services as a volunteer. She worked there for her year instead of going to university, thoroughly enjoyed herself, learned a heck of a lot more than she would have in the sterile classroom and only went back to take exams.

I know that she broke her arm as a child because she was balancing on a toy horse with wheels, she reached out to get something off a shelf and fell. I know this because I was doing something similar with a toy dog once!

There are several stories and I love them but I wish I knew more. I wish I had asked.

If you ever want to know something about someone just ask, you never know if you’ll get to speak to them again.