Aksa Muhammed

Crying

Glasgow

    Interview               English & Urdu

“My mum was always crying. She would listen to the tape and tears would just fall. She was always crying. She never listened to a tape with peace. For the entire length of the tape, she’d cry. And when she needed to send a tape, she’d cry all the way through the recording. Always! I was a bit careless, I was very excited – Great a tape has arrived! Laughter, chatter, whatever was on it, including the serious messages from dad which about their families, their in-laws, and the children – different types of messages. Sometimes it’d be about problems, someone had become ill and it’d be reported, or if someone had good news too. Somebody may have gone abroad to away, or someone needed money – these are the kinds of messages that were included on the tapes. But my mother, she was always crying. When we all listened to the tapes we’d be laughing sometimes but she would always be crying because she would be hearing the voices of her daughters. That’s was the difference. A very emotional time. Emotional for her – Laughter and excitement for us.”