25/05/2025
'Arsenal became my second family, right when I needed them.
I was at the church for the funeral, walking behind my mum’s coffin, and I looked up and saw my whole team there. Twenty or 30 of the staff and players got on a coach at 4 a.m. to travel up for it.
That’s not just teammates stuff. That’s real graft. All of them there because they really cared about me, as a human.
They rallied around me and we found that strength together.
Obviously, it hasn’t been easy. We’ve been a bit unlucky. We’ve struggled with injuries in the years since. But we held onto each other. Held so many different emotions for each other. And that’s what a family does.
I’m so happy that we have the chance to write history together in this Champions League Final, and I know that my mum will be watching down on us – her girls.
Sometimes I can’t believe it’s been more than two years since she passed. I still go home whenever I can, to check in on Dad and his cowboy films, and maybe get a quick cake from Botham’s. And I saved all those notes under my pillow. I even got one of them tattooed on me — the words Love you loads.
And the Pokémon coins might be gone, but I’ve got my own collectible cards now — ones with my face on them. Talk about a full-circle moment.
But maybe the most important thing that I always hold onto is this rock we’ve got at home. It’s from the beach nearby. The one down by the cliffs, where me and my dad would wave through the pub window to my mum.
When I was in London, feeling all alone in my lowest moments, Mum had that stone varnished and engraved with her mantra.
And it feels so fitting.
These simple words and that image in my mind. The Abbey on the cliffs. The long path leading up there. Those 199 steps….
The ones that seem to take forever until you’re at the top and you can see all that sky and all that sea.
Mum’s final words to me. Her final gift.
“One step at a time.”' (Link below)
❤️✍️ - Beth Mead
