Happy Mother’s Day Mum! Elizabeth 1933-2007
Happy Mother's Day, Mum.
Her name was Elizabeth.
She was born in 1933. She loved fashion. She visited her dressmaker, a tiny Italian woman called Mrs Ouberto, who made our clothes as children and made my wedding dress.
She said in her next life she would be a model and a fashion designer.
She was given three months to live when I was seventeen.
She lived for another twenty-five years.
She never complained.
Not once.
Not through the chemotherapy.
Not through the surgeries.
Not through the pain that never seemed to end.
She just kept getting up.
At the very end, when my brother came to take her to hospital for the last time, she asked him to wait.
She walked to her beautiful bathroom.
She put on her lipstick.
And her mascara.
Then she let him carry her to the car.
Everything I do, every woman I work with, every lesson I teach about showing up for yourself is because of her.
Her Smile exists because Elizabeth refused to disappear.
Happy Mother's Day to every woman who taught someone how to keep going.
And to every daughter who learned everything from watching her mother survive.
This one is for you, Mum.
Elizabeth Van Rensburg — 1933 to 2007
→ Explore the Her Smile Empowerment Pathway : hersmile.com.au/her-smile-empowerment-pathway
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