Chapter 2

New Town.New Life.

Mammy divorced Father,she let him stay in the house.Mammy,myself and my 2 brothers went to live in a bigger house,it was rented and became a Care Home for 6 elderly people,where Mammy worked hard training for all her qualifications.I was too old to share a bedroom with Jeff,and I would now share Mammy,s room.Jeff and older brother,Keith would have a room together.

I wanted to be like my best friend,Donna,from infants school,go to ballet lessons,ballroom lessons,clubs and school holidays.Jeff wanted to go to Cadets,Keith ,as he had disbalities and was deaf in one ear,needed extra education.Mammy decided there was only one way to fund all these special treats. ...

Jeff and I had a bunk bed placed under the stairs in the hallway.It became our bedroom for 2 years.Mammy took in an extra elderly Lady in our old bedroom to help fund our needs.I loved ballet and ballroom dancing and Mammy was proud of me because I got the highest marks,winning medals and certificates.Mammy even took on a part-time helper so she could take us on day-trips.We had a wondeful time together.I loved the old ladies,each morning I would take upstairs the breakfast trays before going to school and Mammy paid me pocket money.One morning I went into Mrs Barton,s bedroom with her breakfast and said my usual patter "Come on Nelly barton..rise and shine the day has begun!"She did not sit up fast like usual,she continued to snore.I left the tray and told Mammy Nelly was snoring loudly.Mammy sent me off to school and said she would go awaken Nelly.On returning home from school Mammy told me that we no longer had Nelly,she had past away.I was most upset because Nelly played cards,bingo and games with me.She was ninety-eight and I wanted to see her get a message from The Queen on her 100th Birthday.I didn,t have any Grandparents,so all the elderly folk were grandparents to me.

I visited father once a month.One day I visited and was greeted by a strange lady.She introduced herself as Pam.Father said it was a lodger to help him pay the bills.Pam had a son called Phillip,who would ridicule me and be most spiteful.He told me that his mother,Pam was once married to my father and therefore we were half brother/sister.I did not believe him.He told me in Reading,Berkshire we had a brother buried called David who had died because he had pneumonia.I ran home to Mammy and told her about this horrid child.Mammy was ashen and explained it was true.Mammy asked me several times,what else was I told,it was as if there was a secret she did not want me to know about.There was a secret indeed a secret,which I came to discover eight years later,and explained why Mammy had been so curt with Father until she divorced him.

Pam and Phillip did not stay with father long,she moved back to Reading,Berkshire to live in a flat above a bakers she worked in.

Father met Wynne and sent me a letter to tell me he had married her!She was a wonderful woman whom I adored and cooked beautiful dinners.I loved to hear her stories about Sir Alec Rose,who she worked for in his shop.Sir Alec sailed single handed around the world and Wynne stayed with Dorothy Rose to keep her company whilst her hubby was making his voyage.

Mammy did not have time for meeting men,but she learned how to drive and got a sweet little Triumph Herald car for us to go out in.She worked long and hard caring for the elderly ladies and her boss was very proud of her.

I started a saturday job in a hairdressers.It earned me spending money when Mammy took us to Wales in the summer.It was at Butlins that I wanted to be a star like all the Redcoats.It became my fantasy!As my cousin Ralph had just won a bronze olympic medal,and Mammy,s cousin, David, had just landed a part in Softly Softly on television acting as Inspector Evans, and her other cousin Geraint Evans was knighted for his talented Opera singing,I decided I wanted to be famous too!!I took on more hours at the hairdressers after school to earn more money.Sadly my brother,Jeff started to need money more and more and would meet me from my Saturday job with my wages.He would always end up with most of my wages.I just wanted to earn money to go become a star!

Jeff and I were losing our closeness he became very possessive,as if he was now the Father in our house.I decided I was going to pass my CSE exams and go to work in Butlins away from everyone!I was going to be a star!

A regular customer,Kathy, at the hairdressers,worked in the local pub.She needed a baysitter because she and her husband had split up.I offered to babysit at the weekends after school and after the hairdressers.I was getting more money but also very tired and drained.I adored her two babies Jason and Stefan.

Jeff had a friend called Martin.He had a special needs sister called Lynn.Sometimes I would meet up with Martin and his sister in the pub where my friend,Kathy, worked.I would make Lynn paper boats from the beermats.

Jeff and Martin also had a friend called Alan.Alan often would whisper that he felt my brother was demanding too much of me!One day Martin told Alan it was my sixteenth birthday soon and they would buy a card and chocolates for me.Alan,unkown to me had another idea.He wanted a date!

Just before my sixteenth birthday,I went off to Bourton-On_The-water and Stratford with my school as our end of schooldays treat.I had saved enough to go.I loved this area and vowed one day I would be back.