Inspirational Women for International Women’s day.

It’s been said that women are the backbone of our country. Now I am not a feminist and I very much believe that men and women are made to work together – men have the strength, women have the nouse! (There may or may not be some joking in that last sentence!)

Why I want to celebrate International Women’s day is because we all have women in our lives who have inspired us to try that little bit harder, to grab hold of the aspect of their personalities we love and try and model ourselves on them. I have many women who had had an impact on my life.

At the moment I have my aunty staying with me. We’ve always had a very special relationship, from the moment I was born. Aunty Jan was always the ‘cool’ aunty. She bought me great clothes, got me my first pair of bras (well, my mum took me but after some input from my aunty) and insisted I shave my legs.

Aunty Jan is now doing the exact same thing with my daughter – I can’t tell you how incredible that feels.

If you’ve read my books, you would have seen in the acknowledgements, a Mrs M or Mrs Mackay. She wore the ‘most bestest earrings’ and had such an influence on a five year old girl that I wanted to get my ears pierced from almost the moment I met her. She is still (and not her earrings) one of my dearest friends and someone I go to when things look slightly pear shaped.

My Mum is a wonderful woman. She’s calm on the outside (and I almost think she is on the inside!), she’s practical, loving, gracious and every other beautiful word.

Nana Heaslip (who was my Mum’s mum) has a story similar to Gemma Lee’s (who wrote on my Facebook  page – head there for a look. A few days before Anthony and I were due to get married, Nana was up a ladder picking apricots. She fell off the ladder and broke her hip. Papa, who was busy in the office, noticed she wasn’t around when it was time for lunch and on further investigation, found her lying underneath the tree. “Oh, don’t worry about me dear,’ was her reply to his questioning. ‘I just need a bex, a cup of tea and good lie down!” (I always thought that was an advertisement for either bex or some brand of tea, until I heard that!)

My sister Susan, who was eight and a half months pregnant and could fit underneath the truck she was using to cart the family’s grain crop to the silo, when the mechanic couldn’t and fixed some very important part!

My friend Carolyn who is the best mum I know.

Author Anna Campbell tells me Enid Blyton was her inspiration – the person who made her write (and I almost fit into that category to that category as well).

Krissy Rilley’s hero is Gayle Shann – “She lives in Qld and was on Australian Story a few years ago (With This Ring) and lost her arm in a post hole digging accident on their Qld property. She is one of the most amazing woman I’ve ever been able to meet and shows courage and determination that I don’t think I would ever be able to do. When ever I’m having a bad day, in a tough situation or feeling miserable I think of Gayle and how determined and strong she is. I strive to be as amazing as her every day.”

I’d love to know who your amazing women are… And in finishing, I was having lunch with my sister-in-law recently and mentioned today was International Women’s Day.

Her husband asked ‘When’s International Men’s Day?’

The reply? ‘Every day except the 8th of March 2012. That’s our day!’

So let’s celebrate every amazing woman we know!