Don’t Tell Mummy Read Online Free PDF

father told me were his younger brothers, my uncles Teddy and Sammy, were next to be introduced. They obviously looked up to their big brother. Teddy, a whippet-thin, red-haired teenager with an infectious grin, was a young man impossible to dislike, whilst black-haired Sammy was several years older and more serious looking. Although seeming pleased to see us, Sammy was more restrained in his greeting.
    Teddy volunteered to take Judy for a much-needed walk and gratefully I handed over her lead. Feeling shy of my new surroundings, I did not wish to venture out just yet.
    My grandmother and Nellie bustled around us, putting food onto the table and pouring boiling water into an aluminium teapot.
    ‘Sit you down, now,’ Grandmother said. ‘Sure you must be hungry.’
    Chairs were hastily pulled up to a laden table and the relatives watched as my grandmother piled my plate high. There was an assortment of sandwiches, some filled with spam or corned beef, others with fish paste. There was brown soda bread and small, thick Irish pancakes spread liberally with butter and strawberry jam. A fruitcake followed, which must have used the whole family’s ration budget. I needed no encouragement to eat as I tucked inwith gusto, surrounded by the friendly buzz of the adults’ conversation as they plied my parents with questions.
    When I could eat no more my eyes started closing as the heat of the room, the long journey and the food took their toll. I heard laughing adult voices exclaim that I had fallen asleep, then felt the strong arms of my father as he picked me up and carried me to a bedroom upstairs.
    The four o’clock twilight had fallen when my mother woke me. Sleepily, I allowed her to wash and dress me for another visit. It appeared that my entire father’s family wanted to see us, and I, used to my mother’s small family of one grandmother and a few rarely seen cousins, felt overwhelmed by trying to remember all the names I was hearing. Supper was to be served at my great-uncle’s house in the same road. Uncle Eddy and Aunt Lilly, as I was told to call them, and their two teenage daughters, Mattie and Jean, had laid out a special meal for us which, I was to learn, was typical Irish fare: thick slices of chicken, boiled ham coated in the sweet sheen of honey and mustard, hard-boiled eggs, bright red tomatoes and potatoes boiled in their skins. Home-made trifle and numerous cups of tea followed and again I felt the warmth of my father’s family wash over me.
    They asked about our life in England, how our journey had been and what my parents’ plans were now. Where were we going to live? Where was I going to school? I noticed their surprise when my mother informed them I was to be sent to a private school, as that was what I’d been used to. When I was older I realized that only scholarship pupils from Park Street, one of the poorest areas in Coleraine, would have attended the school my mother had chosen for me.
    They seldom gave us time to answer their questions before they relayed to us all the family gossip. Even then Icould sense my mother was uninterested. I’d come to recognize the polite smile she wore when with company that bored her. In contrast, a cheerful smile rarely left my father’s face as he, the centre of attention, laughed at every new item of gossip.
    Tired out from the day’s excitement, feeling happy that I was part of such a big family, I contentedly slept in a put-you-up bed placed at the foot of my parents’ bed.
    Daylight filtering through the thin curtains that covered the small window wakened me the following morning. Going in search of my mother I was told my parents had gone out for the day and that I was to stay with my grandmother.
    My mother had never left me without telling me first and again I experienced a slight twinge of apprehension and loss. Looking into my new grandmother’s kind face, however, I was able to push my doubts aside.
    While she made me an ‘Ulster fry up’, as she