Memories:


As long as I can remember, we were always sent to my nan’s in Redlake Road, Hastings,  for the six weeks summer holidays.  I didn’t remember at this particular time at my nan’s seeing my mum.  They told me that she had to go into hospital for a hysterectomy.  Of course I was too young to understand what that meant and then they said that she would have to spend 6 weeks convalescing.  I didn’t understand that either.  I thought that she had walked out on us in my mind. During the six weeks holiday, I used to help my uncle Ron in his lorry for Hull & Company.  One day, when we were driving along he pointed to this big building and said that is where your mum is so I said ‘uncle Ron, can I go and see her’ and he said ‘you will have to be quick as I still have deliveries to do’ so we went over to the reception and asked to see Mrs Bate.  After a while my mum came down and I realized that she hadn’t walked out on us, it was just my mind playing tricks.  As soon as I saw her, I just burst out into tears and I couldn’t stop crying for ages.  That was the first bit of drama in my life that I can remember.




Signs:


The first sign I can remember that there was something wrong with my mum was when me and Barbara went to see her at the bungalow.  When I got up in the morning, I made myself a cup of coffee and mum came into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea.  She sat down and said to me ‘Den, I have something to say to you’ and she started to tell me what she wanted to say.  I just said ‘OK, mum, I am going for a shower’.  When I came out of the shower, I went into the kitchen and she said I have something to tell you and she repeated word for word exactly what she had just told me.  I said to her, ‘OK, mum, I am going to take Barb a cup of tea’ and took it into her.  When I came out of the bedroom, I walked into the kitchen and my mum said ‘Den, I have something to tell you’ and again she told me word for word what she had already told me twice before.  I wanted to scream at her and say ‘do you realize this is the third time you have told me this but I didn’t - and that is the first sign that I got that there was something wrong with my mum.