The Start!!
We all had to start somewhere, even if it was just a ‘twinkle’ in both our parents eyes, but it is worth going back and checking the circumstances and conditions before and AT the time of our birth.
(Maybe it says a lot about us, maybe nothing, who knows?).
In my case, my Mother was recovering from losing her second partner in an industrial gas blast in the late 1940′s. The war was over, and everyone was
struggling to ‘survive’ let alone ‘live’. She found herself living back with her parents in a small bungalow at Finchampstead, Berkshire with 7 kids in tow. A bit of a squeeze, but plenty of countryside for the young ones to get lost in adventure during the day.
Before moving back to the small bungalow, my Grand-parents had taken in a lodger to help ends meet. He was a local gardener, odd job man, fresh from the war and needing a place to live. Little did he realise just how THAT was going to change his life forever.
With my Mother freshly grieving her loss, and struggling to support herself and her kids, the lodger took her under his wing and became very protective of them all. So much so, that one day they ‘both’ developed that ‘twinkle’ in their eyes and ‘I’ was conceived.
Well actually, not just me, I had a twin brother growing beside me, keeping me company.
After a few months of struggle in very cramped conditions, Wokingham district council awarded my mother, her kids and now of course, ‘My dad’ a Nissan Hut to live in at Hare Hatch, near Wargrave, Berkshire.
At the time, they were over the moon. A brand new, shiny tin hut to live in alongside several other families in similar circumstances. A smashing little community that would last for three or four years.
However, while cooking some bacon and eggs in the frying pan, my mum accidentally knocked the pan OFF of the stove and onto her foot, burning herself very badly, and inducing labour as a result.
She was rushed to St marks Hospital in Maidenhead where my twin and I were born very quickly.
The big downside was that my twin died because of the lack of oxygen brought on by the shock of the accident. The outcome being, that somewhere out there in the ‘ether’ is another part of me. A kindred spirit that will be forever a part of me until the day we arrive at the same destination together.
A coincidence maybe, but nearly twenty seven years ago now, my wife gave birth to twins three months prematurely, both weighing just two pounds each. Both were kept in the ‘Special Baby Care Unit’ at the Royal Berks Hospital in Reading for a couple of months. Very touch and go at that time, with one of them keep stopping breathing regularly, and staff having to jump into action to resuscitate him often.
Modern technology EH? But both lads are fit and strong these days. You’d never guess they had such a dodgy start. But that’s a different story for a different time.
