Alan Titchmarsh has been open about his admiration for his mother and their final moments together during which they said their last goodbyes to each other
Alan Titchmarsh wrote about his final heartbreaking conversation between himself and his mother. Alan, 76, wrote in his book ‘Knave of Spades’ about his final interaction between him and his mother Bessie and how it was a moment in which they both opened up to each other.
Speaking about the beginning of the moment, he said: “From above the sheets only her head and her right hand were visible.
“Her hair was still dark, even at 78, though she had never in her life coloured. Hair dye would be for ‘that dame’. After an hour or so I got up to go and she opened her eyes. ‘You going?’”
Alan said that he replied: “‘Yes. Will you be alright?’.” The Gardeners’ World presenter went onto explain that historically members of his family had never been fully open about their feelings, but that during his interaction with his mother something changed.
He explained: “She nodded. We had never, as a family been especially outspoken in our sentiments. We kissed and hugged every time we met, but we never said anything.
“You just didn’t do that in Yorkshire. Not back in the 50s and 60s. But now it didn’t seem to matter any more. I squeezed her hand and told her that I loved her very much.
“She squeezed it back, with as much strength as she had. ‘Not as much as I love you’, she said. I kissed her forehead and got up to go.
“At the end of the hospital ward I turned round and looked back at her. She slowly waved her fingers above the sheets, and winked at me. It was the last time I saw her. Two days later she died peacefully in her sleep.”
Alan added that with the money his mother left him he bought a summerhouse. In it he said he added a little tribute to his mother. He said: “I had a plaque made for the back wall of the summerhouse, which is open on three sides, just as she would have wanted.”
This isn’t the first time Alan has talked about his family. On James O’Brien’s Full Disclosure podcast in July 2023 he talked about how much he disliked being away from his family and the heartbreaking question his daughters would ask him.
He said: “It’s not something I wanted but it was at a time in my career where I knew it had to be done. The girls would be sort of 10,11 that kind of age.
“I would go away on a Sunday evening and come back later in the weekend. I do remember the heartbreaking thing of kissing one of them goodnight and them saying ‘will you be here in the morning?’
“I knew I wouldn’t and that was really hard of course. I did say, I mean every weekend, it’s not as if I’m in the army going away for three months or a year or whatever, so that was my excuse.”
Source: Mirror
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