Chapter 9
On winning the Tour de France, Mother, inexplicably,
lost her joie de vivre. Mother was never,
ever, quite the same. She refused all
interviews and gave her yellow jersey to me, and her prize money to charity .
Mother
took to her bed. And I took over the reins as Wattlebird’s tea lady. I was ten
years old at the time, and the weight of being a full-time tea lady weighed
heavily upon me.
On
becoming an official tea lady—the youngest ever in Australia— Mother gave me
gift, a sterling silver tea strainer, with the following engraved along its
handle, ‘the journey is everything.’
The tea lady and her mother and their adventures are an absolute delight to read. As soon as I see there's another instalment, I click and read with relish. Thanks for delighting us so.
ReplyDelete