My mother, Mayzod Elizabeth Hodgson (nee Reid) was born on the 30th August 1928 at Dunedin. She was born a twin, her brother being Raynor Reid. My mum was born into a staunch Scottish family where ‘class' meant everything. It was this ideal that split my mother and her father. Mr Reid, my grandfather (a person I have never met), was a doctor and well respected. He was the type of man who saw the woman's role in life as being house bound, to look after the children, and the home while the man went to work. As my mother grew up she excelled in athletic pursuits these being tennis, swimming but most of all diving. In her late teen years she won the New Zealand Diving championships twice and was selected to represent NZ at the 1950 Empire Games (as they were then known now called Commonwealth Games). These years were the best years of my mum's life. She was known internationally and proved her worth as an ambassador for diving. Her father was pleased.During the Empire Games, the way the story is told, my mother was diving for a gold medal and after completing her final dive one of the judges stated he did not see the dive properly and my mother had to repeat it. The second dive was not as good as the first and she ended up with a bronze medal. This was to be her last Games where she represented NZ.Unbeknown to my mothers father mum was seeing a dashing handsome young man by the name of Clifford William Hodgson. He was, or had been serving in the merchant navy; he was also a qualified electrician. They went and spoke to Mr Reid about getting married (and from what I am told) and he said to my mother that if she married my father she would be wiped from his will and that he would never speak to her again. He was true to his word they never ever spoke again. My mother and father were married in Auckland a day after her 23rd birthday. Mum did keep in contact with her mother secretly and we have photos of my grandmother holding my eldest sister Judith. When my grandmother died this destroyed my mother, she loved her immensely. My mother had four children, Judith, Shelly, John and myself (Derrick). Times were hard money wise as my father started up his electrical business. This soon improved with my dad buying a couple of houses around Auckland and renting them out. But things troubled my mother and she began to drink. The socialising my mother and father did tapered off. How my mum loved socialising, which I think stemmed back to her diving days. Maybe deep down she felt she had lost something she could not retrieve. She now had children to look after, a huge responsibility for a young woman. She was a great mother; she loved us and was always appreciative of our needs. It is a pity we did not appreciate what she NEEDED. Everyone has NEEDS but no one asked what her needs were. Even in later life (after dad died) we never asked her, we just assumed things would be right as she was being taken care of by the trust that was set up by my father. In many ways I feel I neglected her. I was so caught up with living my life that I did not give time to my own flesh and blood. For me I take responsibility for that as I was here in NZ. When my mum got sick it was really too little too late. I brought her home but after 3 days she had a stoke and she was admitted to Auckland Hospital. She succumbed on the 11th November 2001 from a brain stem stroke (CVA) ultimately caused by an intestinal infection which raised her blood pressure dangerously high. This intestinal infection should have been picked up month's prior. To finish I can say my mother was the best of the best. She was a fine athlete, this trait has been inherited by all of her offspring, and she was loving wife who nursed my father up until his death (cancer) but most of all she unselfishly gave her life to her family.Thanks Mum for everything. You will always be in our hearts. Now the other kids can literally leave flowers on special days, even though they are far away.Love Derrick