When she was ill, I asked my mother to write down all our favourite family recipes.

When she died, I found them.

I want to celebrate my Mum’s life by trying all her recipes and recording the outcome here.

Phyllis Griffiths (née Upshon) died on January 21st 2017 at the age of 67 after making a decision to stop dialysing, her life-saving treatment for 15 years. She suffered from chronic polycystic kidney disease, like her mother, my Gran, who died in 2007.

The condition runs in our family and so I have been prescribed medicine to prolong my kidney-life. It’s too soon to know if my daughter, Pip (born 2011), has inherited the problem but it doesn’t look like our disorder is genetic, whatever that means. So my mission is to eat, drink and be very, very merry.

My mum was a fantastic home-cook, collecting recipes in huge volumes, and experimenting on her family. Her curries were out of this world! Her catchphrase when something went wrong was “Oh, flip!”

Her Aunties, Uncles and cousins are giving me lots of tips so I hope I will do all their recipes justice.

RIP Phyllis Elizabeth Teresa Griffiths née Upshon

14th May 1949 – 21st January 2017