According to her, she is alive today because of her mother.
Below is a long post by the outspoken actress on her Lydiaforson.com about her relationship with her mum.
“28th April 2016. Happy Birthday to the reason I have life, my mother Janet.
Each year when this day comes I’m filled with emotion and a little sadness, because there’s so much I want to do for this woman, that I don’t think I’ve even done half of.
I know a lot of people are close to their mothers, and each would say she’s the best mother in the world and they’re entitled to. But my mother is more than the woman who gave me life, she’s my sister, friend, confidant and rock.
Sometimes I look at my life and wonder how I would have turned out if she wasn’t by my side every step of the way.
My mother has been my biggest cheerleader and perhaps the reason I’m so confident in myself. Not once, and I’m not just saying it, but never has my mother told me I can’t do something. Or that it is impossible; she pushed me to fight for and and achieve everything I put my mind to. Even on the days I wanted to give up, she was right there by my side telling me to get up and push through.
My mother never finished school, and I cry as I write this because for so long growing up I always felt she lacked or couldn’t relate to some of the things my brothers and I would say and talk about. We, or I was under the assumption that she wasn’t educated enough to “get it”. How wrong I was, and I beat myself up each day for all the years I lost thinking that.
discovered this one day when I saw her reading a book . I said to her ,What are you always reading?
Because my mum is always either reading a book, or writing something; I’ve never not seen her without either. She said it was a new book she’d bought “message in a bottle” by Nicholas Sparks. I’d read the book before so I knew the whole story, so I asked her to tell me about it, and for nearly 30 minutes my mother narrated this story into detail. I was in shock to say the least.
From there I decided to pay more attention to her.
Then 50 cents came out with his hit song “In Da Club”, and I remember my mother, randomly talking about him and all he owned and even his music. I was like “how do you know all that?” She said oh I watch a lot of E and I’ve been reading the entertainment section.
It seemed then that there was so much I didn’t know about my mother. I mean she’d always been cool and we had always been very close, but there were some conversations I just never had with her until then.
Suddenly we were exchanging gossip from entertainment sites, and trying to out know the other.
She always lamented over how she really wanted to be a midwife growing up, but her family decided it was best for her brother to go to school and so after JSS she dropped out to sell kenkey to support her family. It was a story I’d heard all through my life and I knew it really hurt her. So I asked how she was able to read, write and speak so well. She’d decided when she dropped out of school that she would not forget all she’d learned, in the past , so she always kept reading and learning on her own. My mother pretty much educated herself,and it all finally made sense. She was always coming to me and my brothers about a word and what it meant, or to check out a spelling for her.
So as she sent us to school each day, she spent her free time learning.
What an incredible woman!
The day she told me all that I remember going to my room and just crying. Crying that she’d given up so much for me and my brothers, crying that she too like me had dreams she’d had to put on hold, crying that she put our happiness before hers.
I was ashamed for all the times I disregarded and thought she was being a nuisance whenever she would ask me to help her with a word.
And it all made sense why she pushed me so hard, she used to say to me “you all are going to be what I couldn’t be”
She said perhaps we were God’s plan the whole time, to finish all she couldn’t.Everything I am today is because of my mothers undying love and determination to push me to conquer the world. And I’m glad I found out when I did, the sacrifices she made for me.
It’s so easy for us to take for granted the people in ourlives, I know I have and sometimes still do. We get comfortable with their presence and forget that they too have a life outside of us.
We assume they will always be there and so we don’t give them enough attention. So everyday of my life I try remember who’s important in my life, because my greatest fear is to look back thinking, I should have…
Today as I celebrate my mother and all that her love and presence in my life means to me, remember to reach out to your loved ones, parents especially and thank them for all they have done and continue to do for you.
Happy Birthday Mum, 64 years and you’re still the most beautiful woman I know. Oh and you’ve still got moves.
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