Mother's Day

My mum is a happy person who is extremely friendly. She can make friends with strangers in a split second. When she came to visit me in Hong Kong, she got to know almost everybody living in my building. She is almost 80 years old, but she is an active soul. She has been volunteering in a hospital in Canada for more than 10 years, and has been awarded a few medals by the city mayor! But the most amazing thing is seeing how she took care of my father while he was sick. My father suffered from Alzheimer's disease for years before passing away. My mum would spend literally hours feeding him a simple breakfast, and then take him out to the lake to watch the beautiful swans. I've seen her show the greatest love, and I love her.

Mum has a jolly spirit about her. She laughs at everything, both big and small, from my sister knocking her head on a glass door to the silly, simple-minded gags I tell her. She usually starts with a giggle, then really laughs uncontrollably while shaking her head. Every time I see her laugh over nothing, I will follow suit. And we will end up laughing with tears streaming down our cheeks until our faces turn red like tomatoes. This is my mum. She always cracks me up - and reminds me how important it is to be happy all the time.

Every weekend, my mother and I visit the local wet market. She cooks all three meals on Saturdays and Sundays so she needs my help to buy loads of food. Many consider wet markets dirty and unpleasant, but I don't think that's the case when you are helping your mother and she is always trying to buy things that you love to eat.

When I was 16, I was very involved in horse riding and at weekends I would sometimes take part in competitions, which could be anywhere in France. Often, it was just my mum and I going. One particular day we were on the road, with the windows rolled down. It was summer and the countryside was lush and fragrant. We were planning our schedule for the competition. I was nervous and excited - full of hopes of winning a medal or getting a high score. And I felt so lucky to share this with my mum.

Like many other mothers, my mum can be quite annoying sometimes. She just loves rearranging everything in my room almost every week - to the extent that I have to put a sign on my door that says, "Please do not touch anything in this room". But she is always the one who takes care of me when I am sick, and is there for me when I am sad. She has a knack of knowing when I am sad. So thank you, mum. Have a Happy Mother's Day.

As a child I was clingy, or so I was told. At one stage - it probably lasted a year or so - I would drink only water prepared by my mum. I claimed it tasted better when she handled my glass. I can still remember the yellowish glass she always used - it was my favourite. Years later I caught on and figured out her secret: water tastes better in a glass that's not freshly washed. It's not scientific, but it works for me.

Like many girls, the relationship with my mother was not easy. We just never seemed to agree on anything. Mum's life was hard. She was a diabetic, was often very ill and could not do a lot of the things I would have liked her to have done. She and my dad had to raise four girls without much money, so she took in a lot of extra work to help make ends meet, and even sewed all our clothes to save money. However, we had a wonderful opportunity, when I moved to Hong Kong, to go on holiday together and it was like I got to know her as a different person. I managed to take a picture of her sitting in a boat, looking up at me and smiling, and it is one of my most precious memories of her. Those moments of joy and understanding between a mum and her daughter are golden. I am very glad I had that time with her a few years before she passed away.