Much of this morning has been devoted to what I have come to term "Mum Admin" - sorting papers, identifying bills that need to be paid, direct debits that need to be stopped and so on.  The physcially heaviest component of the stuff that returned home with me was the contents of her document box, which has taken a deal of carefull sifting through in order not to miss anything significant or discard anything precious.

So here, amidst electricity bills and home insurance reminders, I discovered Mum's educational certificates.  Really excelling in bookkeeping it seems, and adequate in Higher English and French.  And she passed art, despite being colourblind (undiagnosed) and in her own words incapable of drawing for toffee... evidently it was the only subject she would fail so the teacher awarded her 51%!  Times sure have changed and the  centralised marking of 'public' exams prevents such compassion by teachers.

In these yellowed and battered slips of paper are reminders of a young woman who dreamed dreams of her future.  I hope that her memories of her school days remain sufficiently intact to bring her moments of pleasure.