14 Comments
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Sue Reed's avatar

A beautiful and moving post, Harriet. Here's to our mothers and all the cake bakers who have gone before.

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Harriet Mason's avatar

Amen to that. My sister proudly showed me a wooden mixing spoon a few years ago, I think it was our maternal grandmothers and she’d always secretly coveted it. She said it was the just the right and shape & weight!

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Matthew Cunio's avatar

Such a classic comment from a child...we each have these "fixed" ideas in our heads that we carry, sometimes without even knowing why. But also a beautiful comment that remembers his grandma x

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Harriet Mason's avatar

It's funny, the teenager in question messaged me over the weekend having spotted the post and said 'This sounds like something I'd say'! I love that the cake gives us a chance to talk about mum/grandma in a gentle way.

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Andrea Mann's avatar

Beautiful, Harriet. ❤️

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Harriet Mason's avatar

Thank you :)

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Donna M Day's avatar

Oh I found this very emotional. It's my late Nanna's birthday tomorrow and, even though my Mum is the baker, she bakes very little now because the MS is so much worse and Nanna isn't around to buy a cream cake to eat with tea this afternoon just because she can. Sending so much love to you. I may make Victoria sponge on Wednesday.

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Harriet Mason's avatar

Oh, wishing you a peaceful time with all those memories swirling and I'm sorry about your mum's MS, let me know how you get on with the cake baking. I did attempt a Victoria sponge on Saturday and it ended up horribly under baked so I think I'll try again later on in the week. May be Wednesday!!

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Donna M Day's avatar

I'm pretty good at Vicky sponge. Made two for my mother-in-law's sixtieth and people seem to like it. I commit sacrilege with buttercream though! ;) Good luck with the second attempt.

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Sha Kepli's avatar

Oh how I cried reading this!

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Harriet Mason's avatar

Oh, I was going to say I'm sorry it made you cry, but sometimes those tears need to come out. I hope you're ok. Hx

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Sha Kepli's avatar

It was definitely one of those need-any-reason-to-cry moment. I am glad it was well placed to something so beautifully written.

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Sofia A Koutlaki's avatar

I loved this post, Harriet: how routine visits were anchors in your relationship with your mother. So moving and life-affirming. Thank you for writing and sharing💙

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Harriet Mason's avatar

Ah, lovely @Sofia A Koutlaki thank you so much for reading and commenting. I love that you’ve used the word ‘anchor’, that’s spot on. I think that’s why I keep coming back to those Wednesday afternoons, because they anchored us at a time when our individual and overlapping worlds were feeling more unstable than either of us were willing to admit.

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