12 Comments

I love everything Maya Angelou has done 🥰 This poem seems particularly relevant at the moment 😞

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yes, I agree.

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Wow what a poem and I can only imagine how powerful it was as a teenager, stunning and feels like the energy of ‘This is Me’ in the showman. Thanks for sharing Suzy ❤️⭐️

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Thank you. x

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Gets me every time 🥹 Still we rise 💛✨

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Yes, every time. Me too. x

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Today is the “heavenly birthday” of my darling mum Ruth, she would have been 84 today. Mum was an amazing woman, divorced in 1968 when net curtains twitched as she was the only divorced woman on our housing estate in Northumberland. Raising my brother & I as a single parent whilst caring for my grandparents & teaching full time. We had a wonderful relationship and I had the privilege of caring for her when aged 59 she had brain haemorrhages & needed care. Sadly in the last two years of her life dementia robbed her of her speech, apart from the word “ Wow” .

So today my vivid memory that inspires me is one word “Wow” - she could express her joy at seeing me, her flowers, a murmuration of swifts over her nursing home. I had a mosaic commissioned for her with some of her ashes within the mosaic and this morning I am tending the plants surrounding her in our lavender garden. “Wow “ is in her mosaic as-well as Darling mum, sunflowers & lavender& a swift…I miss her every day. This day 5 years ago was the last day I held her hand, stroked her hair and heard her “wow”. Her nursing home went into lockdown the next day and five weeks later she succumbed to Covid. Watching her through her nursing home window broke my heart and has inspired me to write to celebrate her life. Thank you mum - I share your “wow” 💜

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Much love, Fiona. x

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Thank-you Suzy x

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Absolutely adore this poem. Still we rise. 💪

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Yes, still we rise, Sue x

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Such an important message and so timely with so much going on in the world. It's important to know that we can be resilient to darkness and to call upon words of strength when we need them.

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