Chapter 2 - Settling In

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Maisie Walker, Apr 10, 2018.

  1. Maisie Walker

    Maisie Walker Very Well-Known Member
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    When a couple of months had passed my suspicions were confirmed that I was pregnant.
    The same evening I knew I went to tell Kerry and ask him if he minded a baby being in the house.
    He was over the moon bless him!
    He told me there had not been any "babbies" ( his word ) in the house for well over a 100 years because he and his wife could not have them although they had nieces and nephews scattered around. It was a house that had belonged to his family that was bequeathed to him when the last uncle died. He also said that the night his wife died the house had been struck by lightening.
    I was happy to find out that he did not mind about the "babbie".

    Hubby was on the early shift when I told Kerry about the baby and as we were going up the stairs that night to the bedroom that we were using I had a strange feeling that a presence was with me. I tried to shrug it off but at the same time I did NOT feel frightened. It had never happened before I had told Kerry about me being pregnant and he had related the tale to me of his wife not being able to have children.

    Cliff seemed to sense something too and said he did not like to leave me alone in the house while he was at work.
    I felt completely relaxed and I had to reassure hubby quite a few times that I would be OK because I felt whatever or whoever it was meant me no harm. WHY I felt that I had no idea but my mother's words saying "Oh Sweet Mother of Mercy she has passed her gift on to my baby." came back to me as I remembered my dead grandmothers arm falling on mine when I was asked to say Bye Bye to her when I finally came out of the "Sisters-of- Mercy" home that I wrote of in my book. My grandmother was, from what I was told, a seer.

    It made me wonder myself at times whether it was my imagination working overtime because I had the feeling someone was watching over me.
    Daft I know and maybe those reading this will put it down to my imagination running riot but I am TOO level headed for that sort of thing.
    Strangely enough I was NOT frightened although hubby got rather perturbed when he had to leave me to go to work.

    I had got to know one or two folk while I lived in that little village especially having to go and get our rations at the "Star Stores". We were still rationed for quite a bit of food even though the war had finished 5 years previously.
    Rationing did not actually finish until 1954, with sugar rationing ending in 1953 and meat rationing in 1954. I very often wonder how folks would go on today if food was rationed because SO many different foods have been brought in from worldwide over the years I honestly believe that it has caused a lot of the obesity we see now.

    It used to be a long day after I had cleaned round so after having a walk round the village most days I used to go home and put a record on the wind up player we had and sit knitting for the new arrival. Wool was hard to get so old jumpers and cardigans had to be unpicked to be re-used. NOT always the colour one wanted but it was a Make Do And Mend time. It was ruddy aggravating though to unpick and unravel a used garment. To make matters worse the yarn was finer then than it is now so it would be nearly double the amount of stitches to cast on.

    Kerry had told me, when he knew I liked reading, to go to the library that was in the house to help myself to any books I would like to read. I was quite surprised to see how big that library was.

    Into the bargain my in-laws dog "Prince" started to make his way to me every day although when I first got to know "Prince" he did not take to me straight away. Seemed odd that now I was pregnant he came slinking in every day slobbering with his house brick in his mouth.
    Yes I DID say house brick and he was only a small white Terrier IF you could say white. More like a Cairn terrier to look at. He always looked a dirty grey to me. He had been trained to kill rats because my f-i-l used to keep pigs and with "Prince" having such strong jaws if he caught a rat its back would have broken in two with the first bite. The pigs had long gone so "Prince" was just a family dog. It seemed strange that the dog spent more time with me while I was living at Kerrys than he did at home. He started to accompany me on my walks although never on a lead, it was not compulsory then and cars were few and far between.
    More about "Prince" later in my tales.
    Kerry's house was situated right opposite a public house called the Queens Head and every night at 7pm sharp Cliff's Mother used to come along with a jug in her hand to get a pint for Cliff's Dad. My in-laws used to live right next to the main Church about 60 metres further along from Kerry's.
    Cliff's Mother was a very quiet person and you could tell at first glance that she bowed down to f-i-ls every whim.
    As the years went on I learnt more about Cliff's father and in some ways I felt very sorry for him although I could never like him.
    That will be a tale for the future.
     
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    Holly Saunders and Babs Hunt like this.

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