Pleasing her mother was and is a pleasure for Mid-Ocean News reporter Tricia Walters.

One of Mrs. Walters’ favourite memories of her mother, Christine Helene Abbott, was after her dad took herself and her sister on a train ride.

Mrs. Walters said: “There are too many to pick just one, but I would have to say the look on her face the day my dad decided to take my sister and I for a ride on a steam train — in the engine part — and we came home with sooty black faces and clothes.

“She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. I was about five years old at the time and I recall she put us in the garden and sprayed us down with a garden hose.”

When they were growing up, said Mrs. Walters, her mother did many wonderful things to make life better.

“No matter how bad things were financially, my mother always made sure my sister and I had beautiful things to wear,” she explained.

“She would buy material and make us the most unique outfits for special occasions. My mother was a brilliant seamstress and I wonder what would have happened if she’d pursued this instead of becoming an accountant.”

As a child, Mrs. Walters went out of her way to make every day as special as Mother’s Day for her mother.

“I always tried to be a good girl,” she said. “I never got in trouble and always did my homework and chores before she had to ask.

“I guess I was goody-two-shoes, because my sister was such a rebel and caused her so much pain and stress, but I like to believe that by always behaving and trying to be the best at everything would make her proud of me.”

When asked if there was something that her mother always said, she thought about it and replied: “I don’t recall her having any favourite sayings.

“She never really needed to give me advice and I never really asked for any.

“I was very independent, even as a youngster.”