We said goodbye to my mother last week. We committed her body and then celebrated her life. As I thought about her, I remembered many reasons why she was such an influence on me, and what might be good for others to hear.

Mum was what people these days would call a moral conservative – but she was also the one who would take in people and care for them (I cannot remember how many times I woke to a teenager sleeping in our lounge room).

Mum disliked alcohol, because of her father who would become violent with his wife when drunk...