'She just refused to think badly of people'

As Alison Limerick releases her most poignant song ahead of Mother’s Day, she tells MARGARET HUSSEY what her mother faced when she arrived in England and how she became her daughter's inspiration

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EVERY time Alison Limerick tried to sing her song Sista Mother Child, she never made it to the end. Written in 1999 in honour of her late mother Sarah, it brought back too many painful memories.

Now, 27 years later, Alison has finally released it ahead of Mother's Day, in tribute to her inspirational mum.

Alison known for huge dance hit Where Love Lives – nursed her mum through illness. Initially, it was bowel cancer, then metastasised cancer.

“I nursed mum at home,” says the singer/songwriter, 66. “I wanted to be there for her and to honour all the effort and support she had given me throughout my whole life.

“That period was devastating, just watching her disappear.

“She was given between nine months and a year, and she died within three months. She was really resigned to it. She was a staunch Christian and had a strong faith.”

Sarah, who died aged 72, had come to the UK from Antigua in the West Indies in the mid 50s.

“When she came to England, all those stories about how black people were treated, you name it, it happened to her,” says Alison.

“But she said, 'I am not going to give anybody an excuse to label me'.

“She was the most English, the most polite, to turn the other cheek, give a person the benefit of doubt.

“She was spat at in the street but still refused to think badly about people.”

After living in Oxford for a time, when her parents split up, Alison moved to east London with older brother Anthony and her mum.

“She was a single mum, had two kids and had fortitude for days,” says Alison. “She worked in the laundry at Guy’s Hospital in London and went from collecting the bed linen to being supervisor.

“She had been in those cancer wards and changed beds and said 'That is not going to be me, you are taking me home'.”