Mum

For The Unicorn Challenge – 07/04/23https://talesfromglasgow137065088.wordpress.com/2023/04/07/the-unicorn-challenge-07-04-23/ and the picture from Eunice.

Forgotten, on the concrete, not sure of what to do, dark clouds covered the sun.

Lana woke up strong this morning, convinced it was going to be a better day. A strong coffee, follow by a stern talking to. This wasn’t the time to give up, something would go right. It was seeing a family, in her café, which caused her to run.

Now, sitting on the floor, she wasn’t even sure she could stand, let alone breathe.

It was only a little thing that stopped her; a family she could never hope to have. The doctor, with his final word. You can never have a child of your own. They had been trying for years, to be told no.

‘Why don’t we sit by the river,?’ a woman held out a wrinkled hand. ‘It must be cold on the floor.’

Why should she get up? At first she thought it would be better not to accept, but the woman, dressed all in pink, wouldn’t move away. An outstretched hand, they were sitting on the bench. Tourists were snapping perfect pictures of the Queen’s swans, with there babies, toddling on after them.

Even here, amongst concrete paving slabs, life always took a stab at her heart.

‘Would you like a cuppa, I made it myself this morning,’ the old lady said.   

The warm metal, against her cold hands, refused to help her grief.

‘My mum, or should I say my adoptive mum, taught me how to make it.’