Homeless

Today

Yesterday I received a somewhat peremptory text from Beatrice, "when and for how long did you live in Crowborough? I told her and promised to remind her of the full story later. So here goes.

In My Day

It was late 1985 and we were in a muddle. Paul's "Barretronics" business venture had failed and he was finding it hard to get a job in Eastbourne. I was away in Southampton doing the computerisation of PAYE training. I had an inspiration. "Why don't we move to Southampton? Unemployment is low and there are plenty of properties for sale."

Selling 10 Montfort Close was easy, we found a  charming house in Swaythling in Southampton, enrolled the girls in schools and were all set.

Then came the bombshell. The vendors pulled out, blandly saying that they had just wanted to find what they could get for the house and had no intention of selling. By this time we had a completion date for the sale of no 10 so we felt some panic.

At the last minute some friends came to the rescue. "Our parents live and work in Malawi", they told us "but they have an English pied a terre in Crowborough. You're welcome to live there rent-free - just pay for your utility bills." We jumped at the chance, put our furniture in store, packed up the girls, cats, dog and tortoises and moved in to what was a perfectly acceptable three-bed semi. 

How unhappy we were! I was away much of the time and Paul was left alone with the girls to care for and without knowing a soul. The town seemed to exist in the cloud layer and a damp, foggy gloom settled over everything. Paul felt so lonely that he sometimes walked up to the shop to buy a packet of biscuits just so that he could talk to a friendly face. Initially we thought we would only be there a matter of three or four weeks so didn't enrol the girls in schools. But as time dragged on we had to find them some schooling. Rebecca, especially, felt victimised and unhappy at her new school.

The experience nearly broke us apart as I desperately tried to do my job in Southampton, keep house-hunting and give attention to my floundering family.

There were some lighter moments. Caspian, feeling aggrieved one day about some lack of attention, ripped open his foam-filled cushion. and was found by us, standing ear-deep in foam chippings, looking very foolish. Chippings popped up all over the house for weeks afterwards. Another time he escaped and spent the night feasting at the local chippy, arriving home dirty, fat and smelling of salt and vinegar. Paul took the girls to see "Back to the Future" and Lizzie spent many hours producing a detailed biog of Michael J Fox - it was a work of hight calibre.

With relief we moved to Southampton in February 1986, only to find that we didn't fare much better. One tortoise came off worst as the temperature at the Crowborough house was too high for him to hibernate properly and he then died when frosts came to Southampton. It took the move to Somerset to enable us to start rebuilding ourselves effectively.

We made so many false starts that I feel especially fortunate to have arrived where I am today, in a beautiful place with my family intact.