The Magic of a mother's kiss

Yesterday was a good day-Sunday a day of rest and reflection and memories. The house is lovely and quiet, the furry children (my lovely animals) content and for a change not destroying the house. This makes me think about my children and how much joy they have brought to my life.

This morning just before I am ready to leave the house I get a phone call from my Sarah my eldest child and she is in a bit of a panic and close to tears.

I ask her what is wrong with dread in my heart. She explains she slammed her sister Caitlin’s fingers in the car door and can I please help?

I do the obvious and ask “Are her fingers broken? Can she move them?” to which she replies yes but she is really in pain. She puts Caitlin on the phone who is trying to be brave and I tell her to put an ice pack on her fingers and send a healing kiss over the phone. Ah the magic of a mother’s kiss! I still miss being able to telephone my mother and ask her to use her magical powers and heal the pain in my heart too.

The laughter we have shared has more than once helped us through some very dark times. However the Ice Pack had also come in handy many a time through the years of childhood mishaps. In fact we have become experts at handling the odd cut, need for stitches, the serious bruises and the suspected broken bones! And of Course Mom's special powers of healing has been called in many a time to fix the situation with a kiss.

That magic kiss that I believe only mother’s posses.

My son Matt was born with a sense of humour that I believe he could only have got from my father his Babba- Grandfather in Shona. From the day he was born, he giggled at himself and at life in general. From a very young age he would go to bed with his Cap on and his rugby ball.

He was not however blessed with the great balance as a child. This I am sure he inherited from his dad. If there was a small fleck on the floor he would trip over it and lie on the floor laughing with such abandonment at this new adventure in his life.

His clumsiness carried on throughout his life. Like the time he came running into my room with a cut on his eye and Exclaimed in a very loud voice that the Katty (A piece of rubber attached between a fork shaped piece of branch from a tree) he was using snapped and hit him in the eye in a tone that could not be mistaken for “This is all your fault”. So I calmly apologized for the Katty breaking and tried to keep calm. By now we all know the drill, cold compression, get the car out the garage and rush to the MediClinic.

I would receive a message that I needed to phone my children on my cell phone. My heart would drop at the fear of “Oh no what happened”. I would phone the children, listen to the reason for the phone call. Put down the phone after giving the necessary instructions. I would grab my car keys and rush off. On my way out my colleagues would ask me “What has happened to your son now?”

This was not an unreasonable question as he was quite accident prone. The one time that will stick in my memory is after an incident that happened in the early evening; I had to make a trip to the MediClinic to have stitches put on Matts eye. I rushed off to the doctor and he was seen to immediately. It was only afterwards that I looked at my state of dress. I was wearing my oldest track suit and sheep skin slippers and my hair was a real sight.

The follow up meeting with the doctor went well. No permanent damage to the eye, but I was a little puzzled by the smile on the doctor’s face. He then looked at me and said, “I nearly didn't recognize you Cinderella! " I saw the humour in his statement as I was now in my work clothes and I am sure looked a much better sight than the one who met him last week.

While staying in Zimbabwe for a year taking a bit of a break from the mad hustle and bustle of Johannesburg I was fortunate enough to stay with my parents. My children were still quite young and not as school going age.

Caitlin is quite an adventurer and has this ability to face life head on and no matter what the situation she seems to overcome adversity. No matter what the challenge she seemed to win hearts every where she went. I swear if there was a volcano erupting she would throw the lava right back at it and the volcano would be too scared to continue erupting!

My father was a particularly nervous grandfather and as I mentioned before had a great sense of humour, and often Caitlin tested this to the limit.

We had a lovely enclosed pool area. The main bedroom had a door leading onto the pool area. When my father was in his room reading he would keep the door open for air circulation. Caitlin knew she was not allowed out the door however she would test the limits and boundaries as often as she could.

She would run into the bedroom and head straight for the door. My father would call for her and tell her to come back inside and when he had no response he would get up and go to the French doors to go and fetch her. As he reached the curtains, she would stick her head out and go Boo!

She was two at the time, a real sense of humour even at that age. She was nowhere near the pool; she was waiting in great excitement for the inevitable reactions she would get from my father. She would look up at her very much adored grandfather who she called "Babba" and hug his legs and then run off back into the house giggling at her game and so pleased she managed to trick her Babba again.

Sarah has this very infectious giggle and very deep old soul. She has the ability to heal the world with her beautiful smile that lights up the world. While staying Knysna I was busy cleaning up the lounge area when I heard this wonderful giggle and a kind of whooshing sound followed by a thump but no tears as the thump was rather loud. Then a whoosh sound and an even bigger giggle.

I quickly waddled to the kitchen as I was pregnant with my son Matt. The sight that met me was one of absolute chaos and joy. She had found the bottle of cooking oil and poured into onto my kitchen floor and was playing Slip and Slide across the kitchen. This little two year old red haired angel with oil covering every inch of her body shrieking with laughter at the sheer joy of just doing what her little heart desired.

I sat on the floor with her and we played in the oil as I watched my once sparkling clean kitchen become this gleaming mess of fun. I looked around and realized that somehow I would need to soak this oil up. So in a brain wave, well I thought so at the time, I pulled out the bag of cake flour and threw this into the oil thinking the flour would soak the oil up and hey presto would be easier to clean.

What I landed up with was a pancake coated daughter and kitchen looking like it should be declared a disaster zone. But the giggles of joy from my Sarah were well worth it. She was covered in oil and flour and very much in need of a bath.

The bath time became as much of a game as the kitchen slip and slide. She used the sides of the bath as a slide in a playground. This little wriggling body of joy. So happy with life and so very cute. Little white floured face, body totally greased and smelling like a fish and chip shop. It took many washes and more giggles and that memory with stay with me forever.

I cherish those memories before you know it, they are grown up and busy with their lives but am grateful to still receive the phone call asking me to still Kiss them better!