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Not so long ago, my mother sent me a Helen Exley collection of quotes and poems: In Praise and Celebration of Daughters . On one of the pages of the book I found this: ‘I even love her bones. We are so close. She is my very best friend.’

Mother’s Day isn’t just the time to celebrate the mother figures we are to our children, but also the friends we are to them – and they to us. Mother’s Day is the perfect time to leave our separate interests aside, and do something together we enjoy. My children have two mother figures here in Hong Kong – myself and Mama Ruth, our family’s domestic helper who my kids have known, and loved, all their lives. The day before Mother’s Day this year, my girls, Mama Ruth and I re-watched Beauty and the Beast . We enjoyed the movie – one of our favourites – and each other, as we laughed and cried together.

There’s a Filipino saying that translates as: ‘Even with the food all ready for her to eat, the mother will always find the need to give every last morsel to her children.’ This is true of all mothers, but here in Hong Kong especially, mothers like Ruth are a perfect example of just how far mothers will go for their children. A few years before she joined our family, Ruth had come from the Philippines to Hong Kong, leaving her two-year-old son in the care of her brother. She came because working here meant she would be able to put her son through school, and put food on his table.

Ruth is in no way unique. In Hong Kong thousands of women have given up that precious relationship with their children we western mothers take for granted, so they can give them a better life. Ruth’s boy will soon be 23, and will be graduating from nursing college. His mother is justifiably proud of him, as we are of her, knowing those sacrifices she has made to get him to where he is today.

Be it as children or as mothers, the meaning and traditions we each attach to Mother’s Day are rooted in love and honour and respect. Though it may well have become a commercialised event in recent years, still it remains a celebration – of motherhood and of the relationship between mother and child. Mother’s Day is the recognition of the protection, nurture, sacrifice and unconditional love that mothers give their children, and the happiness and love their children give in return.

For those of you who are celebrating this year on May 14, I wish you a Happy Mother’s Day – and a Happy Helper Appreciation Month to boot.

Congratulations to the DMR dancers who participated in our annual performance

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