Quotes About Family

I came back from university thinking I knew all about politics and racism, not knowing my dad had been one of the youngest-serving Labour councillors in the town and had refused to work in South Africa years ago because of the situation there. And he's never mentioned it - you just find out. That's a real man to me. A sleeping lion.

I am a big fan of smelly cheeses but the rest of the family don't seem to be particularly keen on them.

I'm lucky to have a great support system in my friends and some of my family. If you have those people that you trust, go ahead and fall back into them and let them be your hammock and cocoon and let them embrace you.

The only thing Jess really cared about were those two children and letting them know they were okay. Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you'd be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved.

I swallowed. "Mum, you're not going to get divorced, are you?" Her eyes shot open. "Divorced? I'm a good Catholic girl, Louisa. We don't divorce. We just make our men suffer for all eternity." She waited just for a moment, and then she started to laugh.

I frowned at the list. "So… I'll go back and tell the Traynors that I'm going to get their suicidal quadriplegic son drunk, spend their money on strippers and lap dancers, and then trundle him off to the Disability Olympics—

Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you still had your mother or father at your back, you'd be okay. Some deep-rooted part of you would know you were loved. That you deserved to be loved.

I was good at keeping secrets from my parents (it's one of the things we learn while growing up, after all).

Who was it who had said you were only as happy as your unhappiest child?

And all babies were God's blessing, even those who said bugger quite a lot, and whose presence meant that half the potential wage earners in our family couldn't actually go and get a decent job.

Jesus Christ," said my father. "Can you imagine? If it wasn't punishment enough ending up in a ruddy wheelchair, then you get our Lou turning up to keep you company." "Bernard!" my mother scolded. Behind me, Granddad was laughing into his mug of tea.

It was an odd sensation, having to view my family as human beings.

So with the loss of my family as well as the man I had loved, every thread that had linked me to who I was had been abruptly cut. I felt as if I had simply floated off, untethered, to some unknown universe.

Strength—real strength—is not doing what someone asks you, necessarily. Strength is turning up every day to a situation that is intolerable, unbearable even, just to support the people you love. Strength is being in that terrible room hour after hour even though every cell in your body is telling you it's too much for you to cope with.

When Jess had Tanzie, young and daft as she had been, she'd had enough wisdom to know she was going to tell her how much she loved her every day. She would hug her and wipe her tears and flop with her on the sofa with their legs entwined like spaghetti. She would cocoon her in love.

He dropped his head and kissed her. He kissed her and it was a kiss of utter certainty, the kind of kiss during which monarchs die and whole continents fall without your even noticing. When Jess extricated herself, it was only because she didn't want the children to see her lose the ability to stand.

Want to know the true definition of the triumph of hope over experience? Plan a fun family day out.

Tanzie knew Nicky was thinking what she was thinking—that Mum had finally gone mad. But she had read somewhere that mad people were like sleepwalkers—it was best not to disturb them. So she nodded really slowly, like this was all making good sense.

Strength is turning up every day to a situation that is intolerable, unbearable even, just to support the people you love.

Because even if the whole world was throwing rocks at you, if you had your mother at your back, you'd be okay. Some

Strength is turning up every day to a situation that is intolerable, unbearable even, just to support the people you love. Strength is being in that terrible room hour after hour even though every cell in your body is telling you it's too much for you to cope with.

Sometimes i still think about when we used to fight and I feel really bad because if I'd known what was going to happen to her, I would have tried to be nice to her every day. I say 'try' because it's quite hard to be nice to someone every day. Even my mum gets on my nerves sometimes but I'm always nice to her because I know she's still sad, and because I'm all she has left.

I felt a sudden wave of sympathy for her. It couldn't be easy being my mother.

She believed me fearless. But nothing frightened me as much as my sister's fears.