TRUE STORY ABOUT MYSELF (TAKEN FROM A BOOK I,M WRITING)
AND FATHER MADE FIVE
It starts 23 years ago in Luton i was married with four young children the youngest a baby boy just 9 months old ….i worked for a D.I.Y company opening and promoting new stores basically i would be given one month to open a shop once the keys had been handed over to me by the builders (not a bad job and well paid).
Three days before the store i was working on opened it,s doors i received the phone call that would change my life for ever …Mrs Neilson our neighbor was on the line ….she was holding my baby son and crying …something terrible had happened my wife and mother of our children had gone ……”an accident ..are the kids ok” i shouted …..things started to flash through my mind like what do i tell the children …..it was the most awful moment in my life not only that Mrs Neilson was just about to make it a whole lot worse ..yep Mrs Neilson went on to explain (once i had regained a little composure) that no my wife had gone alright with Paul from round the corner.
Chapter Two…Where,s The Fricking Quilt Gone
Well it was true upon my arrival back home it soon became apparent that my dearly beloved had departed the marital home but had neglected to take the children with her …..i know many of you will ask “he must have known something was going on”?…well i had no idea none at all (and still don,t to this day).
Part of my problem was although i had four children i just did not do babies (not at all in fact) maybe that,s why she went? ….still i had to learn fast ,very fast, the older children (when i say older the oldest was six) were in a daze/shock god only knows what must have been going through their little minds,my idea of sitting them in front of the t.v soon went out the window when it became apparent that although my freshly estranged wife had neglected to take the children with her she had not forgotten to take the t.v set with her along with the fridge,toaster,washing machine and betamax video recorder ( betamax video recorders what did happen to them) ….anyhow moving on it soon became apparent my task was becoming more and more difficult with the loss of my white goods so to speak (bugger)
Not being one to panic i called for mother…. not my mother but my estranged wife,s mother (Margeret) …she would be there in the morning …..”get a good nights sleep tiger” she said ….easier said than done because along with the fridge,toaster,washing machine and bloody betamax video recorder her departed had taken my bloody quilt
Chapter Three….Baby is kind of cute
I suppose a part of me wanted Margret to put everything back the way it was…after all she was Sue,s (my wife) mother …this was never to be ….in fact i was not to hear from my estranged wife for 15 years and my children have never seen her since the day she left.
Margret was as devastated as i was although at least she had the comfort of a t.v set and a quilt when she got home (lol) still that day we went into town and purchased a quilt after shipping the older ones off to school and nursery…..Margret was to become and still is one of my best friends ……that day while we were in town she said “Baby is kind of cute aint he” …..well looking at him in his pushchair i sort of knew where she was coming from but replied “i just don,t do babies Margret”.
Well it seemed i had to do babies and children four of them sitting alone downstairs that night i found myself looking at the phone waiting for it to ring, hoping she would ring …(she never did).
Chapter Four…..What are you looking at
As the days passed i settled into a routine school runs,cooking,cleaning and washing (by hand) we even had a family trip into Luton to buy a new toaster …Sue had moved too the other side of town one of the mothers at school told me…indeed bad news had traveled very fast and it seemed most of the school run crew knew more about my predicament than i did (lol)…it was not all bad.. all the mothers were horrified by four little ones being deserted by their mother and fussed about me like mother hens (i was starting to enjoy that bit).
Baby was starting to grow on me….at first he showed very little eye contact with me but as the days rolled by i found him following me round the room with his eyes “what are you looking at?” i would say ….i found myself picking him up and taking him with me whatever room i was in instead of just sitting him with his toys….this proved to be a mistake on my part because before long he demanded i picked him up and taken wherever i went…..this would then be extended to bed time …oh he would go to sleep in his cot but anywhere between 4 and 6am he would cry to be brought into my bed (well there was room) ..he would lay awake for a while looking at me ..god only knows why i kept telling him “i dont do babies”
Chapter FIVE…..The Daughter
Well if i did,nt do babies the thought of bringing a little girl (aged seven) up on my own filled me with absolute terror …..mind you not as much terror as she must of felt with the thought of me in charge (lol) ..she was a good girl though level headed and clever,many of her emotions however remained locked up inside her head for many years, for example apart from the night her mother departed the subject of her estranged mother never came up …not for many years anyhow …it was to turn out that this was for my protection she knew more about her mother,s departure than i did… and at the tender age of seven she knew full well the details would hurt her dad (i will love her forever for that).
Life was as if it was on auto pilot …we were starting to have fun and we had a T.V now(lol) but it was getting into fresh start territory and then came an offer we could not refuse ..my father owned a industrial paint contracting company and needed the office manager in Yorkshire
Chapter Six……The Fresh Start
Over the next three months prior to moving to Yorkshire my whole attitude to life began to change …the bond between baby and i just grew and grew and we began to enjoy family life …..along with this though came a new fear that their mother may want them back ….i knew full well that if she went through the courts to get them back i would lose (being the father)…..i found myself writing notes about baby in particular to give her …his likes,his dislikes,what he liked to go to bed with,his favorite foods…..in fact i still have the notes written over 23 years ago i never needed them they were never to see her again.
The move to Yorkshire went well …the day we walked into our new home …so did baby (his first steps) the older ones settled into the new school and made new friends ….even i had a new girlfriend (a single mother from the school run) we got on very well but for me the harm was done and felt i could never commit to another woman.
Chapter Seven….Whatever Happened to us (The Daughter)
As the years rolled by problems came and went as they do with any family ….my daughter was not just a beautiful young lady but very talented she excelled at school and went on to take a degree in child psychology at York University and is now teaching children with servere learning difficulties…..she will be 30 this year and is a mother of two lovely children herself.
I often worried about how she would cope with being a mother having lost a mother figure at such a young age …”would she do babies”……well she made a lovely mother totally devoted to them both.
She told me a few years back over a few drinks that Paul had been calling round for weeks before her mum had left ….all those years she had kept that from me…as she told me she became upset thinking she had hurt me ….i told her not to be so silly and the only thing that played on my mind was the fact that she had taken me bloody quilt…we laughed ..i think that,s the last time we talked of her.
Tomorrow The Boys
Chapter Eight…whatever happened to us (Robert)
Robert was an emotional lad and still is to this day …but with it came a gentle young man who loved animals,our pet dog would live at his side and even when he went to University the bloody dog went with him.
Although he was a bit of a softy he would always be the one to step in and resolve any dispute between the children not for any brownie points but because he cared ….he went through a stage of saving the planet and would walk for miles rather then use the car.
Again he did very well at school and went on to obtain a degree in history and politics at Hull University and later his teaching degree at the same University …he now teaches history at a school in Birmingham and just last year married a fellow teacher from the same school.
Margaret my estranged wife,s mother was always there for me she would travel up from Luton for family gatherings …she had not heard from Sue for some years but on the day Robert was collecting his degree she informed me of some news ….Sue had phoned her and asked if she could meet the children (adults now)……i sat there stunned for a few moments ..collected my thoughts and said “did she say anything about my bloody quilt”…….well what else could i say?
Chapter Nine… Whatever Happened To Us (Damo)
Whatever grudge i may have had regarding the removal of the marital quilt and subsequent departure of my wife many years before ….i felt i owed it to the children to let them know of her request to see them….after all they were adults now and had no right to stand in their way should they wish to meet her.
Damo my second son was the only one who paid any interest ….he had just got married the year previous and was an expectant father himself,he wanted closure on a that part of his life and felt to meet her would achieve that…..Damo worked in a hotel in York since leaving school and had rapidly worked himself up to be restaurant manager……the lad knew his own mind and a week later he phoned his mother the first contact with any of us since her departure 15 years earlier and set up a meeting with her down in Luton the following weekend.
The meeting never took place… Damo got as far as York station and sitting under the huge clock that overlooks platform one he tried to work out how many times the clock had rotated since he had last seen his mother ….too many,far too many he told me the next day.
Damo never looked back after that still working in the same hotel he is the proud father of six little boys ….i,m often seen round there visiting them er… heaven knows why because as you know…. “i just don,t do babies”
Chapter Ten……Whatever happened (baby)
Well Baby and i became inseparable always together what my interests were became his interests ….this did not always work out in his favour mind you :the fact that i had been a life long Luton Town fan meant the poor child had to face the same torments as me (poor lad)..his first match was Everton V Luton Town was when he was just 2 years old.
Nappy changing, potty training and baby sick had become second nature too me….these new found skills became very handy in later years…..but one thing i never became used too was the times Baby achieved something……his first steps …his first words…ect.. because there was no adult there too share it with ……yes i could tell the school run crew but most of them were just after my body (lol)……..oh for those of you who are interested babies first word was (bikit)..which translated means biscuit.
Baby as he grew up became an expert in the I.T field and and now works for different government agencies tracking down internet fraud and has turned out to be a rather fine father himself …and although his work takes him all over Europe not many hours go past without us contacting each other .
Chapter Eleven……Whatever Happened (Sue)
I never did see my estranged wife again ….i should have done :during our divorce there was a hearing held regarding the children and their futures ……i waited in court as did the judge but she did not show ….the week prior to her departure from our marital home remains the last time i laid eyes on her…..Margret (her mother) did keep me informed from time to time alas never did she have news of my bloody quilt.
Sue and her lover Paul never married but went on to have two children of their own …however this all was to turn sour 5 years later and Sue moved to London without the children leaving Paul in the same boat as me ……thanks to Margret the two children she left are in touch with my four and they have all met.
Do i feel sorry for her?…yes i do ..she has missed four of the most perfect people in the world grow up but the flip side of the coin is that her departure from our lives changed me forever it enabled me to be close to my children in a way that would never have been possible had she stayed ………the last we heard of Sue…..she was living in Cricklewood with a man but this was 4 years ago.
Chapter Twelve …Daddy Finds Love Again
I found myself getting more and more involved in school activities and before long became a school governor at two local schools in York and following on from that became a County Councillor on North Yorkshire County Council representing the Knavesmire ward ‘serving on the Police and social services committee’s.
Over the years the thought of another woman in my life did cross my mind but i felt it should be something that should come along well after the children had grown up….after all i didn’t want anymore children ….( i don’t do babies remember ) so nothing was going to prepare me for what happened next and i mean nothing.
I gained many new friends over the years since moving too Yorkshire … in particular Andy and Jenny from work ; Jenny would help me out from time to time with my teenage daughter ( girlie things ) as you can imagine i don’t do ( girlie things )……tragedy was to strike though just a year after Andy and Jenny were married ……Andy was killed in a car crash on the A64 just outside York …….i know what your thinking ….a match made in heaven coming up?….absolutely not Andy and Jenny were very well matched they had not wanted children,just a quite life with their two dogs……well she still has two dogs plus me and plus four grown up step children even though i told her i didn’t do bloody dogs.
For two years after the tragic loss of her husband Jenny and i had remained friends…. then very good friends… and then lovers ( these things happen you know ) just not that often in my life (lol) …….then just as things were going well…. our worst nightmare we were pregnant ….even though i had told her ( i don’t do babies )……she was pregnant….she did remind me of the point that she did babies far less than me ( she had a point )
Well nine months later a baby son arrived and the three of us decided we better get married and we did just that the following year at a hotel in the Lake District ….the older children all in their teens by now loved new baby …..our family was complete …..OR WAS IT.
Chapter Thirteen ……..Good morning Vienna
Well a couple of years went by and Jenny decided that she didn’t mind babies that much after all ( bloody hell i knew what that meant ) and nine months later we were gifted a daughter born with that much attitude the birth went on for hours…..Vienna, my sixth child was to be my last a visit too the snip clinic was in order ( fast ).
Vienna has many talents and at the tender age of ten… she gets on her dads nerves on a regular basis and i can say unreservedly that ( i do not do little girls ) …..moving on Vienna and my grandaughter Maisie get on very well and put on some great little shows even writing their own music .
Twenty three years have flown by since my family had been thrown into despair and father had indeed made five ….now today father makes eight …….my life is complete …but there are a few little secrets i have to share with you tomorrow.
Video bonus here is a Video of Vienna and Maisie with a rap song they composed about me (cheek) because i told her to shut up…..filmed a couple of years ago
Just nine little chapters to go……and here they are …now all the older four children have grown up they have many babies of their own resulting in nine grandchildren Max..Maisie..Callum..Donavan ..Cody..Rhuban..Kenzo..xavier ..and Spencer …..they keep bringing them round to see me even though they know i don’t do babies.
Chapter fifteen…..The End
I work part time these days much of it from home and there is not a day go past when there is not a baby or young child in my arms and i often think back to those early days and think just how bloody lucky i have been …..six children and nine grandchildren …yes life would have been easier had Sue left the quilt but you can’t have everything.
I love babies really…..although as you know that was not always the case ,i still tell everyone (i don’t do babies) falls on deaf ears ….nobody believes me …..