Episode 8

♪ ♪ ♪ Mature Jennifer, voice-over: They say a woman's work is never done, and neither is a mother's, any more than it begins or knows its boundaries.

♪ Day by day, night by night, morning by morning, a mother sees all things, seeks to meet all needs, and always with a love that need not speak its name.

As Nurse Crane is still at the maternity home with Mrs. Singh, I have the pleasure of giving Morning Orders today.

She has, however, left me a note written in red ink.

"Nota bene.

Bed bugs at Lisbon Buildings!"

All together now.

Children: Fireworks are fun for everyone.

But only if you are careful!

Reverend Connell: Very good.

Very good.

Beryl: Come here, boys.

Reverend Connell: And our warmest thanks to Akela, Baloo, and the Cubs for that very educational display.

Now, before we move on to our hymn, I've been asked to mention the upcoming Poplar Mother of the Year competition.

First prize is a fully automatic washing machine... Women: Ooh.

Reverend Connell: And a place in the All London Final in January next year.

Tell your children to get their tributes to their mums in by the end of the week.

All forms of artwork are encouraged.

Paintings, poetry, and handicrafts are all welcome.

Oh, I'm sorry I missed clinic yesterday.

I had my wee in my handbag, all ready to go, but I got sidetracked.

Ugh.

My hands are that full at the minute, looking after my sister's 3 as well as my own.

Oh.

Do you want it now?

I don't have the proper accoutrements, Mrs. Walker.

Um, are you at home tomorrow morning?

Oh.

I don't know what I used to do with my time on early closing days before I became Mayor.

I've been debating play streets and dog dirt bylaws all afternoon.

Cup of tea?

Oh, bless you, Reggie.

I am parched.

[Coughing] [Husky voice] I polished your chain.

[Clears throat] Oh, you don't look 100%, Fred.

He's very pale.

Oh, I'm sorry, but you aren't coming to the Municipal Display tonight.

Oh.

I was looking forward to it.

I know, but you need to rest.

I'm perfectly capable of ooh-ing and ahh-ing at a few Roman candles on my own.

♪ Fred: Cyril!

Got your extra-long matches.

Ah!

Now it feels like bonfire night.

Ha ha ha!

[Fireworks exploding] Not so fast.

Anyone would think you were Cinderella storming off into the darkness minus her prince and a slingback.

Oh, hello, Geoffrey.

As it happens, I appear to be wearing a full complement of shoes.

And I'm not going to comment on the prince situation.

Ouch.

Do say you're coming to the fireworks.

I've got a whole box of Catherine wheels and some Dandelion and Burdock.

Who invited you?

Sister Veronica.

We keep up quite a lively correspondence.

Oh, sis, please, don't go sloping off on your own.

I can't bear it.

I find it hard to bear anything else at the moment.

You need me to come round and cook for you.

Coq au vin and choice of sparkling repartee or companionable silence.

Either would be nice.

Let's arrange it soon.

♪ Rosalind: You two have got much better names for writing in sparklers.

By the time I get to the end of writing "Rosalind," the beginning's disappeared.

I tend to do better if I just write "Geoff," which isn't a name I ever use in life.

Sister Veronica: Nurse Highland!

Look who's here!

Sylvester.

How did you know there was a party?

I called this morning to see if I could visit.

Sister Julienne thought I should come as a surprise.

Gertrude: You want some cake?

We have Toto, which is my own recipe from Jamaica, and Parkin, which is a British...delicacy.

Thank you.

Nothing like a taste of home.

♪ Nyah nyah n-nyah nyah ♪ ♪ Nyah nyah nyah nyah ♪ How long is your sister gonna be in hospital?

They reckon at least another 6 weeks.

It's that complicated, what's going on with her back.

And I wouldn't mind, only it's 3 buses to get to the Orthopaedic Hospital.

Hmm.

Beryl, you need to take better care of yourself.

If it all gets too much, I need you to tell me.

Understood?

[Phone ringing] [Ringing] Shelagh: Turner residence.

Mrs. Williams: Mrs. Turner?

Hello, Mrs. Williams.

We're due at the Welfare Office with May at the end of this month, aren't we?

Mrs. Williams: You were, but I'm calling to say that the appointment has been brought forward.

Esther Tang, May's mother, has had a change of circumstance.

She wants to speak to May.

-Speak to her?

-Yes.

At her request, we're booking an international call to our office number, to take place during our meeting with yourselves.

Can we discuss this with May first?

I'm afraid this must take place as soon as possible.

So, we have 9 individual garter tags, all with slightly frayed elastic.

That's easy enough to amend.

It's important for kiddies to have a uniform, when uniform is called for, even if it's secondhand.

[Knocking on door] Good evening.

I wonder if I might speak to Miss Millicent Higgins.

I am Miss Higgins.

How may I help you?

I found your address on the Electoral Roll, and I would like to talk to you about a confidential matter.

I am the wife of Victor Chopra.

♪ Phyllis... Hmm?

I'm afraid I must ask you to leave.

Of course.

Well, has something untoward occurred?

Please, I would like you to leave.

♪ Victor is very much alive, and he is here, in London.

Is he well?

He has had problems with his health, but, yes, he is well enough.

Is he happy?

Yes.

Victor is adept at joy.

He has a knack for it.

Victor.

I knew that was the name his adoptive parents had chosen.

But I always thought of him as John.

I still do.

Is that permitted?

I'm allowed to think "Is John well?

"Is John happy?

Did John make a decent life?"

Everything is permitted, Miss Higgins.

He is your son.

♪ Oh.

♪ Drink this.

Wish it was whiskey.

Sherry doesn't seem strong enough, all things considered.

British drank all the time in India.

We started drinking on the boat going out there.

I was 21 and a part of what they called "the fishing fleet."

Fishing?

For what?

Husbands.

There was such a superfluity of single men.

After the Great War, that was supposed to matter.

My parents had gone home from the Punjab when I was 10, but I yearned to return.

Yearned.

I wanted India more than I could have wanted any man.

Oh, Millicent.

My mother and father sent me out to a widowed friend in Simla.

And I found employment in a private lending library, after which all talk of fishing ceased.

Strange how swiftly we come to assume that we don't need love when we're young and independent.

Hmm.

When we're old and independent.

♪ One day, a young tutor came in needing 3 copies of "Henry V." He was coaching a family stationed in Simla that summer.

And the summer after that.

Did you walk out together for a long time?

We didn't walk out at all.

His name was Krishnan Chaudri.

But you'd be surprised what can be achieved when both of you are respectable... what other people don't notice or think to look for.

♪ I never once mentioned him when I wrote home to my parents.

I can't get it out of my head that the changed circumstance is that she has married.

Oh, Esther is a young woman, Patrick.

Working as a nanny for a British Army family might have given her... opportunities.

[Sigh] ♪ And if it has, and if those opportunities are genuine, then we have to try to see them as opportunities for May, too.

I know, I know, but-- Shelagh.

May isn't ours.

Every day just now, I have to remind myself of that.

Gwendoline, the widow with whom I lodged, sent me to a place she knew of in Lahore.

And by the time John was born, arrangements had been made for him to go to a suitable family-- a mother of Dutch extraction and Hindu father.

They couldn't have children of their own.

Millicent, if it's any consolation of all, the most cherished little ones I have ever come across in all my years in this game are the ones adopted by parents who'd given up hope.

♪ John is only in England for two weeks, and he wants to meet me.

♪ [Humming] There is no need for musical accompaniment.

[Continues humming] I eschewed Lauds this morning, on the grounds that my spirit was in need of silence.

[Stops humming] [Church bell chiming] There you are.

If there's anywhere else you'd like to see to... We've a little project on our hands this half-term.

Young Colette wants to enter Nurse Corrigan for the Mother of the Year contest, and I thought we could do it in the form of a big painting.

This is scarcely lukewarm!

♪ It's a good job it wasn't a knife!

[Crying] The thing is, Sister, is it acceptable to look for faith?

I'm not sure I've found the right church yet.

Looking for the right church isn't quite the same as seeking God.

[Door opens] I'm sorry, Sister, but I require your intervention before I let myself down and put my hands round someone's throat!

You must apologize.

I am truly sorry, sister, and I ask for your forgiveness.

And so must you.

My dignity has been compromised enough.

They wouldn't put up with that attitude in the Mother House.

No, they would not, and I will not put up with it here.

You speak less like a sister in the vowed life than the vexed parent of recalcitrant offspring.

Hmm.

Which is not a coincidence.

For that is exactly how I feel.

♪ Then I apologize.

Thank you.

[Sighing] Shelagh: Sister Julienne?

May I speak with you?

I had thought roses, but I don't think red will strike the proper note at all.

The chrysanthemums are nice.

Oh!

Two bunches, yes?

In two colours, but not the white.

I would like these, please.

♪ Esther Tang was certainly very well-known to us in Hong Kong.

She gave birth to May in our maternity home and the child ended up in the orphanage.

What concerns me is what's happening now and what it may mean for May's future.

I'm going to sanction an unusual expenditure.

I would like you to send a telegram of inquiry to sister Margery at the Hong Kong branch house and see what could be ascertained.

This may be a case of forewarned being forearmed.

Mm-hmm.

[Clock chiming] [Knocking on door] [Door closes] ♪ I...wanted to bring you flowers to express my respect and my gratitude for your hospitality... and now I find... they are simply in the way.

♪ We must put them in water.

♪ [Sniffles] ♪ Dr. Turner's surgery.

No, I'm afraid you can't order antibiotics over the phone.

Because they're a targeted treatment for bacterial infections and not a panacea for all ills.

[Caller hangs up] [Children talking at once] [Beryl groaning] I'm really sorry.

Ooh!

Oh!

But I think I'm in labor.

Ooh!

My father was in the Indian Civil Service.

The coincidence seems quite extraordinary.

I was fortunate that the changes after Partition enabled a degree of advancement.

We were able to send our boy to a private school in Delhi.

Run by the Christian Brothers.

Nurse Crane: Hari's a nice name.

How are you spelling it?

Victor's wife: The English way, since he went to university.

H-A-R-R-Y.

I am struggling to digest the fact that I have a grandson reading dentistry in Liverpool.

Ha ha!

Would you like to see a photograph?

-Would you have one?

-I have many photographs, and much else besides.

May I just see a picture of Harry, first of all?

♪ Mrs. Chopra, I hope you don't object to my enquiring, but is your husband entirely well?

Did you notice his ankles are swollen?

Victor has been sick for a long time with Bright's disease of the kidneys.

I see.

I did notice a little puffiness; I can't deny it.

Should we arrange for him to be seen by our practice doctor?

No.

He's enjoying his freedom from doctors on this trip.

It is part, I think, of the happiness he feels.

Mm.

Your son, my grandson, is so very like you, and so very like someone I once knew.

I was afraid that you would not like me, that I might not be the person you carried in your mind.

♪ I was afraid that I might disappoint you.

Likewise.

But that was not the case.

Miss Higgins: No.

[Both laugh] [Lynne screaming] I'm sorry.

Did I just wee in your face?

It was--it was amniotic fluid.

[Groaning, screaming] [Crying] [Panting] [Crying] A little girl.

[Crying] A "Congratulations" would be nice.

[Baby crying, Lynne panting] [Baby crying] It's a false alarm, ain't it?

Things are cooling down rather than hotting up.

But you can stay for a couple of hours rest if you want to.

Rest?

Huh.

No offence, nurse, I'd get more rest down Piccadilly Circus.

[Baby crying] The wages are all ready for payday.

Just the packets to stamp.

Meanwhile, the solicitors have sent details through for the transfer of deeds to the Order.

The Nonnatus House deeds?

Mother Mildred insists we proceed.

If the Council ever enacts the compulsory purchase, she is of the view that it would be to our advantage.

You sound a bit weary, Sister.

I'm sorry.

I don't mean to.

I always wanted to see the River Thames, even before I knew I had a drop of its water in my veins.

I always wanted to see the Ganges.

I finally managed it the year before you were born.

Hindu people in London perform their rituals here now.

Was my father a practising Hindu?

Oh, yes.

That was why I was pleased when I heard you were going to Mr. and Mrs. Chopra.

There had been more concern about your likely physical appearance, but I wanted a life for you that was more than skin deep.

What did my father want?

[Sigh] Above all things, Krishnan wanted to do what was right by his family.

And that involved a marriage that was not to me.

One so often hears of men doing the honourable thing, and he did the honourable thing, in his way.

I wish you had been able to have a happy ending.

We had an ending.

Tears were shed, but who's to say that he or I would have known a greater portion of contentment had things been otherwise?

Or you.

I am content now with your arm in mine.

Hmm.

♪ Is this all of it?

No.

It's half.

♪ You don't do too badly, Claudine.

I work for this money, like I worked for this life.

And I could take it all, simply by telling people who you are and how many lies you told.

But I choose not to.

No.

You chose this.

Because there's more profit in it.

It cost me everything I had to come out here in search of you.

You owe me recompense for that, at least.

This is just the start.

♪ Hmm.

Such a treat.

Hmm.

I always thought it rather a shame Julie Andrews didn't sing about whelks in "These Are a Few of My Favourite Things."

There aren't many words that rhyme with whelks.

I'm a very great admirer of Julie Andrews.

She has superlative diction.

I sometimes find her choice of roles a little anodyne.

What's your favourite film?

"Rear Window."

Oh.

Yours?

"Spartacus."

Ah.

Favourite novel?

"Forever Amber."

"Maltese Falcon."

Composer?

Chopin.

Brahms.

[Both laugh] This is an excellent game.

And these are excellent whelks.

Mm.

♪ [Shuddering, moaning] My dear, are you quite well?

I think perhaps I am not.

Aah!

[Coughing] ♪ Chronic kidney disease is very difficult to live with.

Whether you call it glomerulonephritis or Bright's Disease.

In India, Bright's Disease is used more commonly, but it's a very old name.

There are more modern treatments.

I have a very good nephrologist in Delhi.

When did you last see him?

A day or two before I came away.

Was he happy for you to travel?

I was not happy not to travel.

I have very important things to do in England.

Mr. Chopra, your kidneys are failing, and so is your heart.

♪ I need to find the details of all the best specialists for Dr. Turner to peruse.

The Royal Free even has a dedicated dialysis ward with an artificial kidney.

It may be best to just get Victor admitted to St. Cuthbert's as soon as possible, at least while the next steps are decided.

Is that tea for Mr. and Mrs. Chopra?

I told them I'd send it through.

Of course.

These are the names of the best nephrologists in London.

I understand that Leeds is also a centre of excellence.

I will make sure he's seen as soon as possible.

But...[sigh] it may be too late to do very much for him.

He's too young.

He...has a son who's still in his teens.

Do you know the family well?

We have a connection that goes back many years.

♪ If I am to sleep here, where will you rest your head?

There's a bed in the box room and a convenient, little contrivance downstairs called a studio couch.

I also have friends across the way with whom I can lodge if I'm not needed close at hand.

I think it is better that I am here.

Visiting hours in a hospital may be very strict.

We will have to make the most of it.

If we can arrange for you to have dialysis, you might end up on the far side of London.

What are your favourite flowers?

These.

♪ Shelagh: It's so good of you to make the time to come with us.

May kept saying she was scared her mother would try to talk Chinese to her.

I fear my Cantonese has subsided to restaurant level.

But, Mrs. Turner, I've had a telegram from Sister Margery.

About May's mother?

Earlier this year, she lost her job with the British Army family and she ended up back on the streets very quickly.

Oh, no.

The Sisters have taken her in again, and she's just given birth to a baby boy.

♪ [Door closes] ♪ Nurse Aylward, could you test Lynne Viner's urine for me?

Yes, of course, Sister.

I'm afraid we seem to be out of dipsticks.

You'll have to do it the old-fashioned way, with a spirit lamp.

[Exhales] [Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] Oh.

Miss Tang says she's a little nervous, too.

♪ As she doesn't want May to be anxious, she's quite happy to speak to her through me.

Are you happy with that?

[Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] Do you like living in England?

[Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] Are you getting good marks at school?

[Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] And your mother asks, what do you want to be when you grow up?

A nurse or a hairdresser.

[Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] [Laughs] She says, "Be a nurse."

[Shelagh and Dr. Turner laugh] ♪ Oh!

♪ Do you love your English brothers and sisters?

Yes.

[Sister Veronica speaking Cantonese] Do you love your English mummy and daddy?

♪ Yes.

[Speaking Cantonese] And do your English mummy and daddy love you?

I know they do.

They say it all the time.

♪ [Line crackling] Would you like to live with them forever?

♪ Yeah.

♪ [Sniffles] [Tapping] ♪ Nurse Aylward, I found some dipsticks.

[Glass shatters] [Trixie gasps] No!

No!

No!

♪ [Gasping] ♪ Ohh...

I've been taking caffeine tablets all day.

♪ And I can't sleep, and I can't work, and I can't think.

Trixie...these burns are entirely superficial, but if you were my patient and not my colleague whom I cherish dearly, this is the point where I would be saying, "Is there anyone I should fetch or telephone?"

Yes.

[Sniffles] My brother.

♪ [Laughter] Will May's surname be Turner now, the same as ours?

Yes, it will.

♪ [Sigh] ♪ Ohh...

I'd like to say you look better for a hot bath, but I'd be lying.

I don't know what's worse-- the smell of the ointment or the stinging.

First caffeine, now Nitrazepam.

I could ask you to talk me through the role these little darlings played in this latest debacle, but I suspect I don't need to.

Geoffrey, I'm not in the mood for this.

I'm not in the mood to indulge you.

Sis, there are many, many reasons why you find yourself in your current situation, but at least 23 of them are in this bottle.

And they're going in the sink.

Geoffrey!

Uhh!

Ugh!

You can't do that!

Those tablets are only available on prescription!

I may appear, to the casual observer, to be an unassuming suburban bachelor, but I have, in fact, seen more of life than most, and I know the role that chemical dependence plays in shattering lives that are already fragile.

♪ When did you last go to Alcoholics Anonymous?

♪ Too long ago.

I keep asking myself, should we have travelled?

But Victor's health has been broken for a long time now.

Meeting his mother cannot repair his body, but it has brought him peace of mind.

I do hope it does the same for Millicent.

How can he answer all her questions when they have so little time together?

♪ The whole of Victor's life is in here-- all the things she could only imagine... all of the events that she could not see.

So, if you were in a meeting, after you've said your name and said you're an alcoholic, what would you say then?

I would say every day at work, I see the evidence of all that love can do.

I see the joy that results from it.

I see the pain that results from it.

I see the panic and the bliss and the--and the mess that it makes.

But in that room, I am in control of everything.

The power is all mine.

The wisdom is all mine.

And the mess is only temporary.

Oh, it goes in the wash. No one has to deal with anything for very long in the birthing room.

[Sigh] We both run from love, don't we?

It's the way we're forged.

We both want it, but we fear it wants too much from us.

Sis, if you have to run, if you have to stay in perpetual panicked motion... run towards him.

And run towards the girl you were on your wedding day.

I was a monster on my wedding day.

But you were a monster who knew what love was.

You weren't scared of it.

Oh, you were fearless in that white dress.

It was magnificent to see.

♪ This delivery pack has got everything in it that you'll need for a home birth apart from clean sheets, a nightie, and someone to mind your kids.

I'll work something out.

It's my afternoon for going to the hospital to see my sister.

I'm taking the youngest two with me.

You look a bit flushed, Beryl.

Will you let me run some checks on you while I'm here?

Oh, I've no time.

We're having a packed lunch on the bus as it is.

♪ You must be Harry.

You must be my grandmother.

♪ Of course I don't mind that you call me Mum, Reggie.

What a funny thing to ask after all this time.

But would my other mum mind?

Well, I like to think that she'd be very happy that I'm looking after you.

I'm doing her job because she can't.

People can be mothers in lots of different ways.

And people need mothers in different ways, as well.

Help!

Help!

I have a very sick lady on my bus.

What's the matter with her?

Have you called an ambulance?

Beryl: I'm fine!

I'm fine!

I really don't think you are, dear, but help is on its way.

I just need someone to look after the kids.

I know, I know.

Thank you.

Oh, thank goodness.

Now, what's all this commotion about?

How about we all keep calm until the ambulance arrives.

I can feel its head.

Ah.

One of those that knows its own mind.

Mrs. Buckle, if you could grab those kids, if I'm remembering correctly, Beryl has some jam butties in her bag.

How about we give them some of those?

Oh, I'm glad it's you.

[Groaning] I wanted to come to Liverpool to see what your Hall of Residence was like.

Denton Hall isn't bad.

It--it is all men, but you cannot have everything.

We sent you to university to look at teeth, not girls.

When I come up, I want to see you in your white tunic at the Dental Hospital.

Daddy... you're not going to be able to come up, are you?

♪ Don't tell your mother.

[Beryl groaning] Nancy: Little pushes for the head, Beryl.

Just little ones for now.

Blow if it helps.

[Blows] [Cries out in pain] There you go.

One head, complete with hair.

Violet: Oh, well done.

Well done, love.

Wait for baby to turn now.

You know the drill.

I reckon if I gave one great, walloping push, we'd have it.

Hold off for a second.

No, it's coming!

[Groaning] No, Beryl, no.

Blow.

Blow.

[Blowing] The cord is round its neck.

♪ [Grunting] Jeez, you don't do things by halves.

Push, Beryl.

[Cries out in pain] [Crying] Ahh!

What a gorgeous, gorgeous, little lad.

Ahh.

[Crying] Nancy: Born at... Violet: 23 minutes past 3:00.

Ha.

On the 23 bus.

Ha.

It's a boy.

[Applause and whistling] If any of you wish to come forward and testify what Jesus has done in your life this week, now is the time to share it so we can give thanks and praise together.

[Congregation murmuring] Please.

Praise the Lord, church.

Congregation: Praise the Lord.

The Almighty has been doing great things for me.

[Congregation talking at once] He is worse.

I know he is worse.

We must wait to see what Dr. Turner says.

He conferred with the Royal Free only this afternoon.

[Door opens] I'm going to arrange for him to have oxygen at home, urgently, first thing in the morning if it can't be done tonight.

Then I'm going to have one more push at getting him dialysis.

I will come into the surgery tomorrow.

You and Victor will require my assistance.

I came to this city with nothing.

I came without work or material prospects.

And then I found a church.

And friends.

And I rediscovered the power of prayer.

[Congregation talking at once] Here in my hand is my first wage packet.

The money won't last long, but I am going to keep the envelope forever, because it is stamped with the date of the day God changed my life.

[Congregation talking at once] ♪ [Laughs] ♪ Victor's wife: Oh, the bicycle you rode to school.

♪ [Laughs] ♪ Harry: Is that Grandma?

Victor's wife: Yes.

♪ [Laughs] Thank you for making me so welcome, Pastor Robinson.

I'm glad our church has been a blessing.

Starting in a strange place can be hard.

[Church bell chiming] Sylvester, do you mind stopping so that I can ask you something?

♪ You're out late, aren't you?

No, thanks.

I only smoke mentholated.

Sylvester, what were you doing?

With a Nonnatus House wage packet?

What?

In church.

I saw you from the back.

And why were you lying and saying it was yours?

Maybe that's between me and my cousin.

Maybe you ought to ask her.

That would be prying.

This is a direct question.

You ask the direct questions to your friend.

Nurse Joyce Highland.

See if she will tell you the truth.

And tell her to give my regards to Claudine.

♪ Mariam's dozed off in the box room.

Harry's on the studio couch.

Let them rest for now.

I'll sit up with him.

♪ Hold his hand.

♪ Nancy: Who in the name of God is Claudine?

Is she some sort of fancy piece of his?

If Sylvester's been fleecing you for money, he's the one who needs to be hitting the high road.

Or getting a smack in his smirking face-- And what good is violence going to do?

He's got fists like rocks and an anger in him that you cannot quench.

And I know because I tried to quench it.

You can tell me to shut up if you want to, but are you telling us the whole story?

[Inhales] No.

No.

I am not.

And if Sylvester is a liar, I am worse.

I am Claudine.

My name is not Joyce.

And Sylvester is not my cousin.

He is my husband.

I left him and changed my name and came to England looking for a better life.

So now you're just gonna run away from it?

Maybe I'm running before I get pushed and stripped of everything.

We are not going to let that happen.

But we are going to talk to Sister Julienne.

♪ [Harry and Mariam crying softly] ♪ In the end, I was there for his first breath... and his last.

I know.

♪ Not many mothers can say that.

♪ I never wanted to lie.

I only wanted to survive.

Nurse Highland, do you think I haven't seen stories like yours played out a thousand times?

Bright, valuable women, brought to their knees by the ignorance and brutality of men.

I will examine the paperwork and see what can be done to put things in the proper order.

Will you involve the police?

Yes.

Your tenure here isn't in question, but my feeling is, we must report Sylvester Warren for blackmail, making demands with menaces.

Why are you doing this for me?

Because in leaving that man and that life, you have done more for yourself than too many women can find the strength to do.

I consider it an honor to match my strength to yours.

♪ Matthew: It's not forever.

In 4 or 5 months' time, I can come home and manage things from a distance.

[Sigh] But I wish you were here.

I was there once.

It's like I can see your footprints on every street I walk down.

And my fingerprints in every shop.

Yeah.

I don't really go in the shops much these days.

I wouldn't either now.

We'd be doing something else together.

Building from the ground up, just like proper newlyweds.

Instead of shrieking from the rooftops like we'd won some sort of race.

Did you feel like that, too?

Oh, I felt like I'd won every prize, every competition the world had to offer.

Just at the point when we had to start earning it.

Earning what?

Our happiness.

Or maybe just each other.

I wish you were here.

I will be soon.

I'm coming out to join you.

[Laughs] Thank you.

It--it's not forever.

[Laughs] [Giggles] ♪ [Doorbell ringing] You didn't come to meet me as arranged, so I came to you.

And you think that will frighten me?

It might've worked before, but it won't work now.

Why, Claudine?

When all I have to do is tell the truth?

Because the truth is mine and I have told it to good people who will not use it as a weapon.

[Applause] ♪ My mother wondered if you would want to scatter his ashes on the river.

No.

People only use the Thames for rituals when they can't get to the Ganges or go home.

Your father can do both of those now that he's been cremated.

The flowers are enough.

Do you want me to put them on the water for you?

I-I don't want you to wet your shoes or slip.

That would be very kind.

♪ I have made a miniature garden to celebrate that I have two mothers.

The soil is from Poplar because this is where we all come from.

The ivy is because my first mum was called Ivy and the violets are because my new mum... is called Violet.

♪ Um, as you can see, around the garden, there's a ribbon from Violet's haberdashers in the color that Ivy liked best.

And Reggie says that the bow means love.

♪ Bravo!

♪ I am not known for relishing the limelight.

But today, we come in praise of one who seeks it even less.

She has been present at the opening of a thousand pairs of eyes and witnessed the closing of a thousand more.

She has soothed the sick and fed the hungry.

She has given counsel, offered consolation... and she has dried tears.

♪ She has performed a mother's work for decades, and like a mother, she has sought no thanks.

But in every house, in every street, there are women and children and mothers who love her.

And these are the tokens of their regard... for Sister Julienne of the Order of St. Raymond Nonnatus.

[Applause] ♪ Mature Jennifer, voice-over: We are born knowing nothing and no one but our mother and never again will the world feel so complete.

Our time on Earth becomes a quest for love.

We look for love to feed us, love to teach us, love to help us grow and keep us safe.

And we will find it because love is always closer than we think.

Love is in every smile we exchange, every lesson we share, every hand we hold, every gift we give and we receive.

Love is in every breath we take.

It is the greatest prize of all.