Edna-May Hayter was my other mother.

My mother-in-law.

She was nobody’s fool!

She was a country lady, and I was a “cockney-kiddie”

She loved me, and I loved her daughter.

She always tried to help me see the error of my ways.

She was superb at giving me alternative arguments to think about.

She always wanted me to achieve happiness, but rarely in the way I had originally intended.

To say she was a bit of a contrarian would be to understate both her presence and her tenacity.

She was a strong woman who was used to getting things done.

If the fields needed to be planted; she’d plant them. If debts needed to be collected; she’d collect them. And, if some cockney-kiddie needed to be told; she’d tell him.

She busied around looking after her family, literally from dawn ’til dusk, and could still find time to magic up a country banquet without batting an eyelid.

She and I argued on many occasions when we didn’t see eye-to-eye. But, if I’m honest about the times I was right, and she was wrong, I’d be batting a pretty poor average.

She was one of my biggest supporters and always tried to see a positive outcome in my madcap schemes. She always said I’d come up smelling of roses.

Who else would have let me build my hang-glider in her kitchen?

Who else would have loaned us the money we needed, just when we needed it?

Edna-May was a truly lovely lady and someone I came to love and respect.

She was genuinely my other mother. I could not have asked for better.