30) New Neighbours
At the beginning of 1971 Dominic started nursery school. He was happy to have other kids to play with and enjoyed going each day. After he had been there about a week I went and spoke to one of the teachers to see how he was settling in. It sounded as if he was having a great time as the teacher said with a slight hesitation “Well Dominic is no angle is he?” The school was in a cul-de-sac and when it was time to go home the parents cars would drive up the road stop outside the gate and one of the teachers would be on duty at the gate to see that none of the children ran into the road before their parents were stationary at the gate. Dominic would always see our car come form far away and would be ready to go home, he would run to the gate and have a tug of war with the teacher over the gate, he trying to open it and she trying to close it. He was always so eagre to show me what he had made or drawn during the day. After giving him some lunch I would insist that he had a short sleep, he still seemed to need it but would fight with me about it and say he wasn’t tired and make all sorts of excuses not to go to bed. I remember once he told me that he needed the toilet first. After a while he still had not come out so I went to check on him and found him sitting on the toilet fast asleep. I woke him and got him to bed but he still insisted that he did not need to have an afternoon sleep.
Our neighbour Mrs. Darling decided to sell her house and move away. A couple that had come from London and had not been in the country long bought the house. Bernard and Patricia Turner and their two sons Kevin and David, (who was always called Buddy). Buddy was the same age as Jonathan and Kevin was a year older so they all became good friends. The family had not been in the house very long when Bernard started having trouble with one of his legs. He would loose the use of his leg and fall over. The doctors could not find out what the problem was, but Bernard was booked off work, and was going for many tests. Meanwhile the family were all getting settled into their new home. Pat and Bernard had taken out a large loan to buy the house and they decided that they needed to take out a good insurance policy to cover the debt. After doing numerous tests the doctors diagnosed Bernard’s problem as brain cancer and he started going downhill pretty quickly. He was a very brave man and I never remember him complaining once. He had long stretches in hospital and then would be home again for a while. He wanted to be at home with his family but it got harder and harder for him as he could not get about and could not do much for himself anymore. People who had anything to do with him in the hospital, doctors, nurses, fellow patients and their visitors were amazed how cheerful and uncomplaining he was although he was in great pain most of the time. Eventually he died and that left poor Pat a young widow with two little boys, a huge mortgage in a new country. She had been working part time for a while and I remember her employer was pretty good to her, but eventually she had to go back to work full time to support herself and the boys.
It was a hard time for the lads as well and Kevin was not doing well at school. He was continually in trouble because he had not done his homework so we arranged that after school the boys would both come over to our house and I would supervise their homework. One afternoon there was spelling to be learnt and Kevin was battling with them. Eventually when all the others had finished their work and were out playing in the garden he came and told me that he knew them and would I test him. He gave me his book and went and sat at the table to write them down as I called them out. I called out the six words at random and he brought me his sheet of paper to mark. I was very pleased to see that he had got them all right. I praised him and told him that it was great to see just how well he could do if he put his mind to it. He was not concerned about my praise but just wanted to get outside with the others. Off he went like a shot. I went to the kitchen and started preparing our supper and was thinking how well he had done as they weren’t easy words and he had got them all right. It struck me then that the words on the paper were written down in the same order as they had appeared in Kevin’s book but I had given them to him in a different order. He had just copied them on to a piece of paper and pretended to write them out when I called them out. I did not say anything to him as I was sure that I would end up smiling about his cleverness at getting the better of me so I just left it and spoke to his mother and let her deal with it. We kept in touch with them for many years and Kevin and I would often have a laugh over the spelling lesson.
Pat was very pleased that she had taken out an insurance policy to cover the mortgage, at least now she would have a fully paid for roof over her head but when she tried to claim on the insurance she was told that they would not pay her out as Bernard had had cancer when they had taken out the policy. I suppose technically they were correct as the policy was bought at the time Bernard was having the problem with his leg. He was back and forth to the doctor and had been to various specialists and had had many tests but at that time no one was mentioning cancer and there was no thought that he would not get well again. Poor Pat had a very hard time and eventually went to England to the head office of the insurance company to put her case to them and they did finally pay her out but it must have been a very worrying time.
About a year after Bernard’s death she met a man called Ken Thompson and they eventually married. Ken had been a farmer in Malawi and was always a farmer at heart. I don’t remember where he was working when they first met but I do remember that he did offer to take charge of the chickens that Kevin and Buddy had as pets in the back yard and taking charge meant slaughtering them. It was arranged to happen when the boys were out of course and Ken did not think about the next-door neighbours. He was busy ringing ‘Henny Penny’s’ neck and looked up to see Dominic staring at him through the fence. Ken said that he just saw Dominic’s big eyes and that he said, “I’ll tell Kevin and Buddy what you have done”. Ken never forgot that Dominic had caught him out in his “dirty deed”.
Our neighbour Mrs. Darling decided to sell her house and move away. A couple that had come from London and had not been in the country long bought the house. Bernard and Patricia Turner and their two sons Kevin and David, (who was always called Buddy). Buddy was the same age as Jonathan and Kevin was a year older so they all became good friends. The family had not been in the house very long when Bernard started having trouble with one of his legs. He would loose the use of his leg and fall over. The doctors could not find out what the problem was, but Bernard was booked off work, and was going for many tests. Meanwhile the family were all getting settled into their new home. Pat and Bernard had taken out a large loan to buy the house and they decided that they needed to take out a good insurance policy to cover the debt. After doing numerous tests the doctors diagnosed Bernard’s problem as brain cancer and he started going downhill pretty quickly. He was a very brave man and I never remember him complaining once. He had long stretches in hospital and then would be home again for a while. He wanted to be at home with his family but it got harder and harder for him as he could not get about and could not do much for himself anymore. People who had anything to do with him in the hospital, doctors, nurses, fellow patients and their visitors were amazed how cheerful and uncomplaining he was although he was in great pain most of the time. Eventually he died and that left poor Pat a young widow with two little boys, a huge mortgage in a new country. She had been working part time for a while and I remember her employer was pretty good to her, but eventually she had to go back to work full time to support herself and the boys.
It was a hard time for the lads as well and Kevin was not doing well at school. He was continually in trouble because he had not done his homework so we arranged that after school the boys would both come over to our house and I would supervise their homework. One afternoon there was spelling to be learnt and Kevin was battling with them. Eventually when all the others had finished their work and were out playing in the garden he came and told me that he knew them and would I test him. He gave me his book and went and sat at the table to write them down as I called them out. I called out the six words at random and he brought me his sheet of paper to mark. I was very pleased to see that he had got them all right. I praised him and told him that it was great to see just how well he could do if he put his mind to it. He was not concerned about my praise but just wanted to get outside with the others. Off he went like a shot. I went to the kitchen and started preparing our supper and was thinking how well he had done as they weren’t easy words and he had got them all right. It struck me then that the words on the paper were written down in the same order as they had appeared in Kevin’s book but I had given them to him in a different order. He had just copied them on to a piece of paper and pretended to write them out when I called them out. I did not say anything to him as I was sure that I would end up smiling about his cleverness at getting the better of me so I just left it and spoke to his mother and let her deal with it. We kept in touch with them for many years and Kevin and I would often have a laugh over the spelling lesson.
Pat was very pleased that she had taken out an insurance policy to cover the mortgage, at least now she would have a fully paid for roof over her head but when she tried to claim on the insurance she was told that they would not pay her out as Bernard had had cancer when they had taken out the policy. I suppose technically they were correct as the policy was bought at the time Bernard was having the problem with his leg. He was back and forth to the doctor and had been to various specialists and had had many tests but at that time no one was mentioning cancer and there was no thought that he would not get well again. Poor Pat had a very hard time and eventually went to England to the head office of the insurance company to put her case to them and they did finally pay her out but it must have been a very worrying time.
About a year after Bernard’s death she met a man called Ken Thompson and they eventually married. Ken had been a farmer in Malawi and was always a farmer at heart. I don’t remember where he was working when they first met but I do remember that he did offer to take charge of the chickens that Kevin and Buddy had as pets in the back yard and taking charge meant slaughtering them. It was arranged to happen when the boys were out of course and Ken did not think about the next-door neighbours. He was busy ringing ‘Henny Penny’s’ neck and looked up to see Dominic staring at him through the fence. Ken said that he just saw Dominic’s big eyes and that he said, “I’ll tell Kevin and Buddy what you have done”. Ken never forgot that Dominic had caught him out in his “dirty deed”.
posted by JC at
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