Who inspires you?

"Don't stop, keep moving forward."

My heroes have always been musicians or athletes. Their posters may no longer line my walls, but to me, the height of human experiences must be to have a crowd sing your own song back to you or to be the most awe-inspiring athlete a sport has ever seen. As yet another rollercoaster year comes to a close, I’m reminded that as much as I admire these people, inspiration is far more personal and often comes from a place much closer to home.

This is my Mum.

To preserve her dignity (and avoid her considerable wrath), let’s just say she’s well over a decade past the official retirement age. When my parents split in my teens, the two of us were left with next to nothing. What happened afterward was the very definition of inspiring. She set about saving her family.

Way before Dory from Finding Nemo sang "just keep swimming" she'd say “don’t stop, keep moving forward.” Granted, it's not as catchy but just as powerful.

She took the lease for the small canteen at the local stadium and ran it seven days a week, churning out industrial-sized batches of amazing food from our tiny home kitchen. She ironed people’s clothes, cleaned houses and giant, filthy community halls. She refereed games and coached school teams. Anything to keep the lights on and food on the table. Whilst I was oblivious to the sleepless nights my tuition fees were causing, she still found a way to celebrate milestones and I never once felt like we were doing without. She'd make ends meet with quiet and dignified reliability and reassurance. But for many years the reality was we were one bounced cheque away from disaster and I had no clue. Her smile was genuine; her energy extraordinary. She simply refused to let the toughest of days or the longest of nights take us down.

For more consistent income she successfully passed the induction as a full-time Prison Warden; an amazing career change given she was half my size, approaching 50 years of age and heavily outnumbered by males trying to keep society’s most vile and dangerous locked up. True to form, she never took a backward step from anyone - on either side of the prison bars. Some nights she’d come home with great stories. Other nights, when things were bad, I worried if she’d make it home at all.

Refusing to slow down seemed to have unexpected benefits for her and us. The busier she was, the more our luck changed for the better. The more active she was, the less her mind and body had any interest in the ravages of time.

Also it only took her raised eyebrow, made famous decades later by another islander, to quickly stamp out any juvenile laziness in me. She didn't need to say a word.

As times got better, she kept working full-time but enjoyed herself circling calendar dates for international rugby tours to follow her beloved All Blacks across the globe and she competed and won medals in basketball in not one but five World Masters Games. Some medals were awarded because there was no one to play against in her age group, which we often laugh about, but we won’t dwell on that.

2021 marked her 30th year as a Warden - with a medal ceremony I was proud to attend - and the time for her to move on to something else. Not retire, of course. Don't be ridiculous. Just to do something different. So now, seemingly ageless and with as much energy as ever before, she has poured herself into finding the right charity to dedicate herself to and they will be all the better for having her.

What a life.

Grace, strength and unshakable resilience.

“Don’t stop, keep moving forward.”

This is my inspiration. This is the motivation I call on when I’m slow to dust myself off after failure or think I’ve done enough to succeed.?This is the example I pass on as a father to children of my own. I, and they, have their Grandma's big shoes to fill. And I’m so grateful to still have this inspiration in our lives as we approach the challenges and opportunities of 2022.