This working trip to the USA has had the blessing of the Mom back at headquarters because the UK celebrates Mothering Sunday in March. So I am here wishing my own 77-year old Mom a great day along with my sister visiting from Alexandria, Virginia.

My wonderful wife is today hopefully going to enjoy another spectacular day in the garden with our three growing children. We will feast here today with my Mum, her sister and our cousin’s families in celebration of the three mothers here.

Last night Mum insisted on taking my sister and me to The Olive Garden restaurant for dinner (we still have bruises trying to wrestle the cheque away) and it was a wonderful evening. The Olive Garden phenomenon continues to amaze. It is a restaurant that seats 265 people and one must clinging a round donut shaped beeper waiting inside or out for up to five hours (their Mother’s Day record last year) for some pretty good Italian food. And no one held a gun to our head as we waited 45-minutes last evening.

Whilst standing outside, there was a gentleman in a Ryder Cup 1999 sweatshirt standing with his family. I remarked, as I mostly am want to do, that he should come visit Wales in two year’s time when the Ryder Cup visits our tiny land for the first time at Celtic Manor Resort.

There then followed an inspirational chat with Forrest and Florence and this column is dedicated to them. Forrest told me he was 93 and his wife Florence was 90. Born in 1915, they have been together for 73 years, “72 piped in Florence, he always gets it wrong.” Now they really had my attention.

Their “baby” was taking them to dinner and he looked a few years older than me (I’m 50) and gave me “the look” when prompted by his wife that said, “ohmigod, Dad’s wandered off the reservation and is bothering that poor man.” I smiled, gently waved him off and stood there listening to a great series of stories.

He and Florence live in Wollaston, have 8 kids of their own, 17 grandkids and 6 great-grandchildren “with number seven due next month,” piped in Florence. They both looked remarkably healthy and to wait outside for an hour on a slightly chilly evening showed a lot of strength remains there.

Forrest gave me a golf lesson as he shot his age at 82 and planned to play this coming week. Florence had three of her grandchildren beside her and it was lovely to see their quiet devotion. She’d recently had cataract surgery and was wearing dark glasses, was perhaps a step slower than Forrest but make no mistake who was in control of this family.

I wish we’d had more time together. It would have been wonderful tracing back over 90 years. I tried to imagine how confounding this technological world must be to them and yet I saw how happy they were just to be there. Both their Mum’s died just short of 100 years so there is longevity built into that family gene pool.

Alas though our table was ready, I thanked them both for the honour of hearing their story and headed inside. On the way in I passed their son who sarcastically said, “I see you managed to escape.” I looked him in the eye and said, “no escape was needed, I would not have missed this for the world. It was an honour to meet your folks.” The unsaid message that passed was, maybe you should take a moment to listen and learn because you never know how long you will have together.

He gave me the kind of busied, baffled executive look as if to see ohmigod, he’s also wandered off his reservation and I can only hope that someday he will realise, and before they are gone, what a treasure they are and how much he and his children can learn from them in the remaining time.

I’ve learned the hard way to never take one moment for granted. So if you will now kindly excuse me, there is a wonderful Mum across the ocean to Chris, Tara and Uma I need to call and tell how much she means to all of us, even though we already did it in March.

Every day is indeed Mother’s Day and the song lyric is true, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

So Happy Mother’s Day to Florence, Marilyn, Karlene, Donna, Dorret, (my daughter in law Jady who is expecting end of the year and who we hope to welcome next to the mother’s club) and all the mothers out there.