It wasn’t really the time to be making deals. We were in the middle of the Covid pandemic, I had briefly swapped New Zealand’s gilded cage for the clinical confines of Mum’s English care home and doctors had warned us she might not live to see Christmas. But I wanted to give the most important woman in my life hope – something to live for. Looking at Mum slumped in a wheelchair, wearing a jovial festive jumper, her brave smile belying the pain in her eyes, I took her hand and made a promise. I told her if she could just fight and get back on her feet – metaphorically, if not physically – then I would get married.
Mum had been waiting for me to tie the knot ever since I emigrated to be with my Kiwi partner Phil Stephens in 2006. In reality, she had probably been waiting for it my whole life. I was now facing the fact she probably wouldn’t be there.
What followed was a miraculous bounce back to health by my mum, Rowena Bennett. And her unexpected and continuous recovery led to a series of romantic events on two continents, across a variety of locations, with Mum not only helping coordinate it all, but also walking me down the aisle.
Aisle be there
It was a happy ending that seemed highly unlikely back in 2020, when, following a horrendous tumble down a flight of stairs that saw her hospitalised, Mum was unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, which had spread to her spine. The whole family was in shock – not least because just months earlier, Mum’s brother had died of Covid while battling the same cancer.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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