Would You Believe? Mother’s Day
RTÉ One, Sunday 26th of March, 2017
On Mother’s Day RTÉ’s Would You Believe? celebrate some of Ireland’s amazing mums.
Italian-Irish matriarch ANTOINETTE BORZA was nominated by her daughter Mena, 31, because … ‘my love for my mother gets me through the day’.
Antoinette, 53, was born in Ireland, but eloped when she met the love of her life Joe Borza in Italy. But after the romance she had to face the facts of life… ‘When I found I was pregnant with Luigi I wasn’t married yet… It was a scandal… I was bold. But I wanted to be with Joe and that was it.’
Antoinette and Joe are still together and with the help of their grown-up children Luigi, Mena and Pio, run the family chipper in Drogheda.
Antoinette’s youngest son Pio, 28, clearly adores his mother… ‘Sometimes I just like to lie on the bed beside her. I just like to cherish every moment. I just couldn’t imagine a world without her’
SHARON DARCY is a single mother bringing up her two boys, DJ, 15, and Karl ,11, in West Dublin. Sharon, 40, says… ‘I was born to be a mother, it is a privilege. I’m good at what I do as a mum. Getting it right is a huge reward for me. I got something right!’
Sharon has faced a great deal of heartbreak in her life as a mother. She lost two children through miscarriage and watched her eldest son battle a liver condition which nearly killed him. ‘The toughest challenge was having a very sick child. If something happened to DJ or Karl I don’t know how I’d survive without them.’
But despite the challenges Sharon is a proud and dynamic mother, adored by her sons.
‘She is the best mam in my opinion. Even when times are bad she tries to keep me, my brother and herself happy’, says youngest son Karl.
VALERIE COTTELL, 80, raised her four children in the 1960s. Her daughter Janet, 53, says … ‘She was a bit conservative and I did get away as a teen. But when I got older and had children I began to appreciate her a lot more.’
As well as raising her children, Valerie also ran a thriving riding school in Dublin. But when her husband’s job was moved to Limerick, she had to give up her thriving business. ‘Like the good little wife I was, I went down to Limerick with two children and when I returned I had four children’.
But Valerie, 80, didn’t give up on her passion for horses, and is still active as a riding instructor for the disabled. She now lives with her daughter Janet and two of her grandchildren. Her daughter Janet says… ‘I don’t like to think about my mother passing… She is part of my life with my kids living in the house and it’s a continuation of my childhood really.’
Antoinette Borza, Valerie Cottell and Sharon Darcy were nominated by their proud children to take part in this special Mother’s Day Would You Believe? programme to be broadcast on RTÉ One on Mother’s Day Sunday 26thof March.