We’re going down a slightly different path today. No sewing stories or plans for future projects (although I do have a craft related post coming up soon – I promise).

As it’s International Women’s Day, I thought I’d write about the women who’ve played a large role in my life – do a little shout out to my personal heroes and the people I want to thank for helping make me the person I am.

My grandmother wasn’t exactly your typical feminist role model. Brought up by Victorians (literally), many of her beliefs were more than a little old fashioned. Men were always right and came first… As an unmarried woman I should still be living at home with my parents… She never did get to grips with the fact that I owned my own house. An her horror when I told her I didn’t own an ironing board!! (I do now – but strictly for sewing purposes)

I remember her saying “but when you get married you’ll have to iron your husband’s shirts”. Apparently “he can iron them himself” was the wrong response to that…

All that said, I can’t think of a stronger willed woman. (Some people may use slightly less polite words). Right up to the end (she passed away last July at the age of 101), she was fiercely independent. I remember her announcing that she wasn’t going to drive any more (she’d given up her car years before) – she was going to learn to fly instead.

Every memory I have of my grandmother is incredibly special. From her attempts to teach me tennis down the side of her house (I still can’t play) and showing me off to her WI cronies (a very formidable group), to her realising we were eating at a Chinese restaurant and exclaiming “but I haven’t got any Chinese money!” (we were in South Yorkshire…) – every memory makes me smile. Even the bitter sweet ones.

Such a strong personality, she played a huge part in my life for over 34 years and I feel very lucky to have been able to spend so much time with her and have so many great memories of her.

Not least I need to thank her for making my mum the person she is. Which leads me on my second role model.

Like me, my mum grew up with two brothers and no sisters. The difference is that while my mum was given jobs like doing her brother’s washing when he cam home from medical school – she’s always insisted that I did the same chores and had the same opportunities as my brothers.

We all cleaned, learnt to iron, helped with washing etc. We also all helped with decorating, gardening and DIY. In fact for a long time, I tended to be more involved with DIY than my brothers. Aside from an inability to go more than a foot up a ladder for most of their lives – they weren’t really very good (one of my brother’s now claims this was deliberate so that he wouldn’t be asked to do any – not sure I believe him).

For most of my life, I’ve gotten to watch my mum be an amazing teacher, deputy head, co-head and finally head teacher. I’ve watched her juggle an incredibly hard job and extremely long hours, with bringing up the three of us (& we weren’t exactly easy at times).

I’ve also seen her turn her hand to whatever job needed doing – although she’s not particularly a fan of ladder either so anything higher than 6 foot is usually out. In my family she’s the one who’s responsible for hanging wallpaper and, since we did my house five years ago, she’s now also in charge of any tiling jobs.

Here she is happily brandishing a crowbar when we were working on my house:

In short, as well as teaching me to walk and talk, she and my dad also taught me that I could do anything and be anything I wanted. I was never aware of any potential limitations because I was the girl in the family.

As a result I’m as happy doing woodwork as I am sewing. I’m proud of the fact that I can say I’ve mixed cement and helped build a greenhouse, summerhouse and a shed (twice). I’m as at home building furniture or laying laminate flooring as I am making a teddy bear or Malaysian flatbread (actually the latter was a complete failure – dough everywhere…). I don’t think I would be saying that if I’d not had her example or her encouragement – so thank you mum!

I’m also lucky enough to have many more amazing women in my family who I love and admire – from the one-of-a-kind aunt who tells me I’m gorgeous & brilliant no matter what I think of myself to the amazing cousin who dropped everything and travelled down from Glasgow when I was at my absolute lowest. To say I come from a line of strong women is putting it mildly…

And finally on to the newer members of my family.

I’ve never had a sister – but I’m incredibly lucky to have acquired two wonderful sisters-in-law, and the added extended families that come with them. Whatever I may say about my brothers – they did well!! Both my sisters-in-law have supported me, encouraged me, laughed with me and cried with me. I’m so glad that we’re close enough to go shopping and drinking together even if the boys aren’t around. As you both have sisters, I’m not 100% sure you know what that means to me, but from the bottom of my heart – thank you  and I love you both!!

And let’s not forget the youngest members of the family – the twirly-girls! They may not be three years old yet, but there is no doubt they’re continuing the tradition of women with strong personalities. I can’t wait to see how they grow up but whether they’re fairies, pirates or fairy-pirates, it’s going to be amazing.

Hadn’t intended this post to be so long and there’s so many more people I wanted to include so I’m going to have to do a second post just about them…

So who are your heroes?