Back to a Quiet Life

Story contd.

I settled down to being a housewife and Mummy, and life was very pleasant. Our garden backed onto the garden of a large house owned by a National Hunt Jockey. He got into conversation, when I met him on the train, before baby was born, and we discovered we lived in close proximity. He was great fun and a real charmer and when our families got together I was delighted that William also liked him. Before long he had made a gate in the fence to save us all a long, twenty minute walk to reach each other’s houses. Through him we were introduced to the racing fraternity and our social life stepped up a notch.

Then there were the two girls with babies that the health visitor had introduced me to - we had become a strong trio and saw each other almost every day. We even went on holiday with one of the couples. Vanessa, my old nursing friend and her husband, would come over to visit and Maddie, my sister and husband would drive over from Caterham. Throughout this time, Maddie had kept in touch with Liam – Jamie’s brother, and knew that Jamie was living in Cheshire. Odd that we had recently left Cheshire. She has always been good at keeping tabs on people, so called in on Jamie and his wife and child. As she was being served tea – which she always drinks black, the little girl asked,

‘Mummy why does Daddy’s girl friend not take milk and sugar?’

She was told this wasn’t Daddy’s girl friend but Daddy’s girl friend’s sister.

All of this was related to me by Maddie and not for the first time I wished she wouldn’t be such a ‘meddlesome Mattie’. I didn’t want reminders of Jamie and the hopes and dreams I’d had, especially when I was trying to come to terms with my life as it now was.

All in all I was reasonably content until William told me he was applying for another job, and if he was offered it we would have to move. I couldn’t believe it. It was déjà vu all over again. In Altrincham just when I had become embroiled in the SAP, the local theatre group, and we had a circle of friends, it was up sticks and off we went down south. I know I was probably being selfish and not seeing the bigger picture. I just don’t like change –especially when we seemed to be reasonably content. But this was the time when the wife was a kept woman and the husband was the bread winner so his job took precedence. I just wasn’t convinced it was vital for his job to be changed and for us to move house to another county.

There were tears – not just mine – the girls got quite emotional. We knew it would never be the same again and being at home all day with a small child was quite a lonely occupation. I felt better when I found I was pregnant again. We wanted at least two children and this would make the gap two years and three months between them, so maybe it would be better to have a larger house and a better salary. William was offered the job; I put on a brave face and threw myself into looking for a nice house. It was a long way to travel so we scoured the Daily Telegraph and I found something interesting. Good enough for us to make the trip to look at it.