Last week was my mother's 87th Birthday

We always use the day as a rally point to get the family together

Families can be so complex today, so we also had the family Christmas that day too

Ahead of the day, my mum contacted me and gave me a list of jobs

We are the IT help desk

British Telecom (BT) has changed the email settings so email didn't work they way she wanted it

The great grandkids had set a daily reminder on Alexa to play music at a certain time and nobody could work out how to turn it off

The CD player and speakers were playing up so she couldn't play any CDs

Etc, etc …..

We all become used to living in a tech run world and for my mum who grew up before the internet, she isn't confidant fixing these problems

At the end of the Facebook messenger message she sent me

(She says, “email is for old people”)

She made the comment “I'm not good at anything”

Which we all know is not true

We are good at many things

In life, it's important we know what are strengths are 

In my reply to her, I wanted to make this point, in an empathetic way

My mum's, mum (my Nan) was taught how to cook and bake in the Workhouse

She went on to be “in service” to a Dentist family in Evesham for many years

These skills, she was taught in the Workhouse she past onto my mum

So we did a swap, my mum made some flapjacks (see photo)

Something she is really good at, and she knows it

And we fixed her IT

In this way I was help to my mum

We also got some yummy flapjacks