1905: Ruby Caselton may only be twenty-five years old but she already has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Heavily pregnant with her second child, penniless and exhausted, she is moving her family into a new home. The Caseltons left their last place when they couldnt pay the rent, but Rubys husband Eddie has promised this will be a fresh start for them all. And Ruby desperately hopes that this time he will keep his word.

With five-year-old George at her feet and her mother having a cross word for everyone and everything, life is never dull at number thirteen Alexandra Road. It doesnt take long before Eddie loses another job and once again hits the bottle. Its up to Ruby to hold them all together, through thick and thin. She remembers the kind, caring man Eddie once was and just cant give up on him entirely. What she doesnt know is that Eddie has a secret, one so dark that he cant bear to tell even Ruby . . .

Through Rubys grit and determination, she keeps food on the table and finds herself a community of neighbours on Alexandra Road. Stella, the matriarch from across the way, soon becomes a friend and confidante. She even dreams that Ruby will ditch the useless Eddie and take up with her eldest son, Frank. But when war breaks out in 1914, the heartbreaks and losses that follow will fracture their community, driving both Stella and Ruby to breaking point. Will their men ever return to them?

A Mother Forever is the moving story of one womans journey through the worst trials of her life poverty, grief, betrayal but through it all is the love and comfort she finds in family: the family were connected to through blood, but also the family we make for ourselves with neighbours and friends.