Mum

Mum trained as a nurse. She never achieved much else in life, although she once met Princess Mary. I have a photograph.

Mum was nervous. She wouldn’t even ask the chemist for Tampax. She handed him a note instead.

When mum had a breakdown and tried to strangle me in my sleep, dad said:

‘The mind’s a funny thing.’

Then we watched as they took her away.

Mum was immensely practical. Every payday she took my dad’s wages and sorted the money into neat piles. The day before she died she said to me:

‘Don’t forget to pay the coalman.’