Happy Mother’s Day @dalston999 and also to my incredible mother in law @judithcannon. I love you & I’m eternally grateful for you, and for the incredible words you wrote for @rosstboyd and me on Maternal love: Alexander introduced me to motherhood, as Ross did Judith. For they were our firstborn sons and we fell in love with them, completely and permanently, with a love that was new to us; it was visceral, passionate, and fierce, but it was a love that was also soft, nurturing and protective. For although a mother gives her child life, she would also kill for him. We learnt what it was to love someone else more than ourselves and for whom we would do anything: but we also learnt what fear is, and that there is no off switch to worrying. We each became a mother, with all that entails: an all-consuming 24/76 job for life. There are many kinds of mother, but this is my kind: a mother’s love is not finite, spent only on the first-born, but expands to encompass all those who come after, and in turn all whom they love too. A mother has to balance the need to protect and keep her child safe with the need to let them fly on their own: to hold their hand until they say ‘I can do it by myself’ with never a backward look as we hide our tears at their independence. When we look at the people our children have become, we can still see that beautiful baby, the delightful toddler, the school; child, the testing teenager; all the time growing in confidence and ability; who will make mistakes but be able to learn from those mistakes and emerge stronger, knowing they have the unwavering support they need from their mother. No one will ever have a greater fan than their mother…unless it is their grandmother. Judith and I are so proud of all that Alex & Ross have achieved in their lives and their careers. But we are most proud of and impressed with their capacity for love, evident as soon as they were able to demonstrate it to their family and in turn their many friends. As a mother, it is easy to feel you are getting it wrong much other the time…but when we look at our children, we know we got something very right. Diana Brewer 18.9.21