A photo of my mother just with me – something very rare.

It’s Mother’s Day in Australia – a chance to reflect on all the lovely mothers who have gone before us. I’m loving seeing my friends tributes splashed across social media. I love especially the photos of women taken so recently that I could swear they are still with us.

In many ways they are, since they live on in those they leave behind. And as we mature to take the place of elders ourselves, little things they say and did come back to remind us not only of who they were – but that they are still here.

I gasped with surprise when I first saw this photo of me with my mother. It was passed on to me by my godmother, Auntie Joan, only recently, just before she died. I had never before seen a photo from my early childhood of just Mum and me. I’m from a large family, and blessed with a twin sister and another sister exactly a year older. So the mother- baby daughter pics are always a tumble of Mum and three, if not more, little people – great photos but in a very different way.

There was another surprise in this image. It captures looks and qualities not usually seen in photos of either of us. It is as though the photo shows the way Joan saw us. And that was another unexpected gift.

So when I hold the photo I see Mum, but I feel Joan. Happy Mothers Day to you both.