Essex Boy: My Story Read Online Free PDF Page B

reason she hadn’t developed a career – she married young and thought Dad would always be around, and as he could drive, that seemed like enough. She would head out to do the weekly
shop at Asda while we stayed at home, as it was a hard enough job for her without having to drag us along too. It was quite a mission to get there, but she would head off and reappear a couple of
hours later, with dozens of Asda bags all up her arms – she must have had the strongest arms in the world by the time we left Borley Court!
    There weren’t even any decent bus routes around ours yet that she could use – although that was good for us in one way. Because it was impossible for us to get to school, the council
provided a free taxi to and from school for us each day. So actually, we travelled to school in luxury!
    But no matter how hard things got on her own, Mum kept on trying. At night she would make a real point of the three of us curling up on the sofa together after dinner, watching TV and cuddling. We always felt really loved by her. And she would do little things to encourage us. She knew I hated school, so she would have some sweets for Daniel and me laid out on the sideboard waiting for us
when we got in every day. She always made sure that we got exactly the same amount each. Some days there weren’t many, maybe just a couple of sweets, but they were always there as a little
reminder she had thought about us during the day. It was one of those things I always looked forward to as a kid.
    Mum made sure that we grew up polite, knowing good manners, and to say please and thank you to people. That was her real obsession: ‘No matter what, say please when you ask for something,
and thank you when you get it!’
    And she would teach us good morals as well: to be kind, to share and to help other people. They’re basic things, but it can take time to teach them to kids.
    Like many single parents, one of Mum’s big worries was money. She went back to work after she split up with Dad, which was something she had never expected to do, and
brought in money that way. But she wasn’t very qualified or experienced, so there was a limit to what she could do. While we were at school she worked in a warehouse, putting leaflets and
free gifts inside magazines, and then on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights she worked in a restaurant, while our grandparents or one of our older cousins babysat. But it wasn’t always
enough to get us by, and sometimes we would have to turn to Dad. He and Mum didn’t have an official agreement about money after he left. Instead he carried on paying the mortgage, and Mum was
to deal with the rest of the bills. He would also give her extra money from time to time when she needed help, but he soon stopped that, claiming she was spending it on herself.
    There was a lot going on between my parents that we didn’t know about, so I can’t make too much of a judgement about the way things were. Mum and Dad were protecting us by not
telling us everything, and anyway we were too young to understand. But there was one time that sticks in my mind when it was hard not to feel that we could really have used some help from Dad.
    The first Christmas after he left, the electricity and gas in our house ran out as there was no money left on the meter. We couldn’t believe that they were both gone – and at that
time of the year. So Mum called Dad. I don’t know what his response was, but for whatever reason we didn’t get the money to put in the meter over Christmas. Mum wouldn’t have gone
to her family about it as she’d have been too proud and didn’t want to be seen to be failing. So there we were, the three of us, sitting there on Christmas Day and then Boxing Day, no
lights, no heating, no electricity. We couldn’t make our Christmas dinner as there was no way to cook, and there was no television or anything like that. We literally just sat there. As the
only cash Mum had saved had been spent on