Mum was my absolute favourite person in the world. She was my best friend and the person who understood me better than anybody else. We could spend hours talking about everything from our hopes and dreams to our favourite Kate Bush songs (hers: This Woman's Work, mine: Cloudbusting). She is also the person who has most shaped who I am today, and who I will continue to be for the rest of my life. The things I most admire in her, and hope to carry on, include an ability to remain positive regardless of the circumstances or urge to feel sorry for oneself - a struggle to do right now to be honest but I'll try nonetheless. She also had an incredible eagerness to understand other people and what they were passionate about. As an English teacher, she would often come home late after work because she'd have been chatting to a group of year 7 students for an hour about whether the Lord of the Rings films are better than the books (they are). Lastly, she had an insatiable love of different cultures and art in all its forms. She loved Tennessee Williams in equal measure to Slipknot (google them). It's no wonder her life took her from a small village of 50 people in Norfolk to North London, Russia, the Seychelles, Lesotho, Botswana, Thailand, the UAE and China. It's a testament to her kindness and generosity that there are plenty of people in all these countries, and many more around the world, who will happily rave about how fantastic she was. It's these things, and lots others, that make me feel like the most privileged son in the world to have had her as my mother. Though there will not be a single day where I do not miss her and wish desperately I could pick up the phone and talk to her or give her a hug, there will also not be a day where I won't be able to recall with vivid clarity and a big grin any one of a million memories of her. - Ash