I’ve been really looking forward to post these images… :)

For months we’ve been planning my mother’s holiday. I made lists of all the things we want to do and see. We decided that the duration of her visit would be 5 weeks. That would be enough time for us to do all the things we want to. On the day we collected her from her flight from South Africa, we were all so excited! “We are going to do all these things and you are going to see so much this time”, I told her.  Little did we know that she would get a terrible chest infection and that I would become ill as well. It’s now been 3 weeks into the holiday and we still didn’t get to see anything. All we did was go on the London Eye the weekend of her arrival. We had to cut the day short because she was already unwell.

But the one thing I planned for us I was not willing to sacrifice – a photoshoot with my mum. We live near the Lesnes Abbey Woods and if you saw my recent KIKI shoot, you would know its AMAZING! So that morning we got dressed in out winter coats and I put some makeup on for her in between all the coughs and nose blowing. We made out way to the Abbey Woods and started walking very slowly into the forest. She loved the forest. There was a lot of huffing and puffing from both of us, but we gritted our teeth and made the best of it. After about an hour she said: “Sorry my girl, I can’t anymore. I want to go home.” So we staggered home.

The next day I downloaded the pictures and we had a look. We were trying to keep in the laughter because every time we laughed we had a coughing fit. Some of the pics had sleepy eyes and unflattering poses due to both of us being pumped full of flu medication and our bodies being overtaken with the flu monster. That, of course, made us laugh hysterically! And then we started coughing again! Then she pointed out her ‘large doughy’ (her words) hands. “Why do my hands look like that!” she said. And then we laughed again. She also asked me to please remove the black circles under her eyes. It was made worse by the flu. “It’s the only cosmetic surgery I can afford”, she said. She then sighed and said: “Oh well, I guess that’s what you look like when you get old.”

Even though we laughed so hard at her hands, those hands worked HARD. Those hands had to turn over the pennies 3, 4 times. Those hands had to dry many tears. You see, my mum had a very hard life and even now, she’s going through tough times. But while others see doughy hands and wrinkles, I see an amazing woman. Someone that is strong enough to carry her kids through all the tough times and start over when life beats her down. And finally – someone who is a beloved of GOD. That is why I wanted to take her picture even though we were delirious with the flu and why I really wanted to post it on my blog :)

The rest of the pics :)