'Today, if you are lucky enough still to have a mother, give her a hug from me'

My mother passed away after a long illness last November but, in my heart, she will never really be gone. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear her voice.

- Eamonn Holmes

TODAY I face the day I never wanted to face. It’s Mother’s Day, and for the first time in my life I don’t have a mother. Well, not a living one. 

Josie was very special. Her standards were high and her tolerance of “bull” very low. She called it as she saw it and never had time for pretentiousness – a great leveller in my showbiz life.

Not many people impressed her, not even royalty, though I did tickle her with introductions to Max Bygraves, Val Doonican and The Priests.

It was the greatest sorrow of my life that I was unable to attend her funeral back in Belfast due to back surgery and a fall that broke my shoulder.