“Tales of Jill”

On the second driiving exam woohoo I had passed my test so at last all of that anxiety had gone, I had finally achieved my quest.. I was now driving in our little mini to Pringles factory so no more catching buses made it much easier for me.. Well we had our first wedding anniversary and both of us was working quite contentedly.. Robert’s Dad had very poor health he had problems with his heart, so in those days Robert had taken over his Dad’s farming life and was often selling sheep and cattle at the local mart.. He also worked at the waterboard and used the company van, so betwixt there and his farming life Robert was a busy man..I drove Mary, Robert’s Mam and her cronies to the nearby bingo hall,  so every and I think it was a Monday night we would play ‘Eye’s down’ and have a ball..We were always just up and down from his parents little abode, you see they bought a lodge on our park when we got wed and we moved into their bungalow just down our little road.. They had took us to a warehouse in Scotland to buy all our new furniture for our house.. so we didn’t lack for anything.. we were very comfortable, me and my spouse..I was only twenty and in that very same year, I had passed my driving test and the pitter patter of tiny little feet was looming near.. twas on November 11th 1980, on Armistice day, our first daughter Jennifer was born, Eeh I can remember that so vividly that 4.58 a.m. early morn..She was an easier than I’d expected birth delivery and Jenni as she likes to be known today was as lively as can be.. mind you she had a milk intolerance for the first year of her life, I can well recall she drove me up the wall with agonising worry and strife.. Thankfully betwixt and between alot of my dedication, haha she started gaining weight from my absolute frustration.. the health visitors used to call frequently to our front door but little did they know that I’d devised a cunning plan to make her gain her weight once more.. I used to take her dummy out and almost everytime she fell asleep I spoonfed her thickened goats milk and baby rice and it was swallowed down nice and deep..Well thankfully this sly method of mine did the trick, it soon healed her poorliness and stopped her from being so sick !! I still wonder today if I had breast fed Jennifer instead of formula milk, would her early feeding years have been more fun, but then again I was only twenty one and so niave when all was said and done..

I had just returned out of the maternity wing in the hospital with my newly born, one week later and alas I recall this so well on that very early Monday morn.. my sister Chris breezed in our house, she had come to collect my Mother who had arrived only the night before to help us out with one thing or another.. As my dear Dad was walking down to go to his fishing boat in the middle of the night, he took a massive stroke and boy did his suffering give us all a fright.. I couldn’t see him in his coma as he was lying in his bed at home, and even today this fact brings me to tears as I sit and write this long poem..Poor Dad had a stroke and he was never ever the same again, he lost his speech and spent seventeen years in a wheelchair no doubt in wax and waning pain...Dad was an extremely heavy smoker, infact he never had a fag out of his fingers and we all blamed that for all those years of his invalidity with it’s languished lingers..Dad recognised me but his speech was very bad and he could only shuffle slowly with a walking stick, this made us all so sad...I was able to visit him three weeks later where he was still lying in his bed, Dr. Byers had told my sister he wasn’t to be moved until that bloodclot mended in his head.. of course nowadays one would have whisked him into a hospital ward when no doubt his hellishness could have healed alot and his silence of speech restored...So time past as it inevitably does with us toing and froing visting our familes at weekends and them visiting us coming and going..Robert’s dad was always in and out of the city hospital he had had a triple bypass many moons ago..so his health was deteriorating each and every day and he loved eating his fried mushrooms you know..Our landline coz in those days well there was no such thing as mobile phones, it was often waking us up in states of panics after his heart attacks and the unknowns..

I had made a very good new friend when I was expecting my first child,  Sharon and I both had tummy bumps and spent most afternoons talking babies apprehensively beguiled.. so both of us had alot in common we were soon to be brand new Mums, as we lay in antenatal classes lying on our fat tums, Victoria her little healthy girl was born three weeks after mine and so these two tiny tots strengthened a friendship that ended up so devine..Well we would walk up the street with our prams and sit our little ones on the rugged floor, at the toddler group in the local Church hall our two tiny tots would totter around and explore..Time sped swiftly by and almost four more years further from that day, I fainted unexpectadly and realised another baby was on the way.. Our home was well prepared for a home birth delivery, it was clinically arranged.. but in those last minute preparations my midwife had to dial 999 and that home birth was changed.. never-the-less minutes after I had that uncomfortable journey with the blues and twos, our second daughter popped out with no problems after the correct tiny instrument was in use.. Jennifer gained a sister and Laura was her name and now we had four little feet running around, haha our life would never be the same..

Laura was exactly one month to that very day on that early Monday morning when Michael, Robert’s twelve year older only brother had a coronary heart failure without any warning.. I recall answering our landline to his Mother’s frantic screams and little did we ever think that this would happen.. never in our wildest dreams...Michael Jacob Tait died on February 4th 1985, at only thirty nine years old we would never see his lovely face again.. Oh man alive..And on that sad day Jacob, their Father was lying ill in a hospital bed, can you just imagine how awful it was for him to accept his son’s death.. he couldn’t get in into his head.. I actually had to collect him in a wheelchair and take him and Mary to the mortuary, and I shall never ever forget that hollow body in pyjamas that lay as lifeless as can be.. Jacob was out and in of hospital on the day of his son’s funeral.. fate dealt us all a terrible blow that sad day that was inexcusable..

Grandad Jacob or Jacky was always rattling his old farmer’s stick on our garden gate to collect his “Swanky lanky liz’ and “Keyhole Kate” teehee that was his pet names for his two little Grandchildren and they were his double date..they would all toddle down to his ‘Jungle’ which was down our field just across the lane and they saw Elephants, Monkeys on branches and a Lion with a hairy mane.. Eeh what an imagination that man had he was like a children’s pied piper.. mind you amidst all that fabrictaion he would often get them hyper..Well within two years I fainted once more as I was queuing at a supermarket, my shopping landed on the floor.. so yes indeed I was expecting child number three, now this came as an utter shock and a sudden surprise for me..my estimated arrival date was on old years night.. but it was on January the third 1987 when our Amanda was our delight !! She came into this world the spitting image of her Dad so though his folks had bets on baby number three being a boy, well everyone was glad..on new years eve in the hospital, nurses had me sitting bursting coloured balloons.. and they sent Robert outside to enter as their ‘First foot’ the supersticious loons..Well coping with two little ladies was no different to coping with three and the next busy months ahead sped past so speedily..It was on February the 3rd 1988 when I was visiting at my Mam’s house with my trio of tiny troubles that death landed yet again at our farmyard gate.. My Mother answered her landline on that chilly winter’s day only to tell me Grandad Jacky had just dropped down dead so I had to rush away.. Another awfully sad period for us all but Jacob Tait left his legacy of lovely memories the day he got his call...

Jennifer started school with her little red/ grey uniform looking especially smart whilst her other two sweet siblings attended the playschool at ‘Surestart’ well this gave me a little bit of spare time on my hands.. so I started serving at the till in the Coop, tho that ended up 5 til’ 8p.m. by managerial demands.. but I helped out at the Surestart even when my little two were there, this arrangement worked out just fine and dandy coz my little ones didn’t care..A little bit of independence which I would spend on the kids.. one could never have enough stuff and we was forever parting with those extra quids..Sharon and I attended ‘Zumba with Anya’ around about those years I longed to loose that excess fat that I had gained carrying those little dears.. We live on a holiday park and campers were constantly at our doors so both of our lives was forever bustling with the booking ins and chores.. I reckon this is why my time up to date has sped so fast,  my husband and I have had an over-active past...When our girls were almost teenagers Sharon and I wanted more exercise so we started Linedancing classes in the evenings and both of us were very good at this much to our surprise.. we lined up and pranced and danced in many a local hall, as yon steps were learned tho many a time we ended up facing the wrong wall..We both agreed to join ‘Kath’s inline stompers’ our very own nine piece demonstration team.. and I often wonder if we all looked bonkers but I loved it, I often danced in my dream..

So I was up and down dropping off and collecting kids at school and what with their after school clubs, dancing lessons and the Brownies well I was a taxied carpool.. Grandma Mary bought me a camcorder it was the latest fad and today I have lots of videos of all our deceased loved ones which makes me very sad..but ones memories are always there to treasure, our little reminisces of those long gone happy times we all spent together..Well we were all growing older midst the timelessness of time.. most of my uncles, aunts and even some of my school friends had passed on and were now angels on that final climb.. but there was happy times too.. my two sisters had two daughters and a son, so we would all meet up for celebrations and boy did we have fun !! Our bungalow had extensions with many added new rooms coz my three girls and I needed our own boudoirs to house our finereries and perfumes..Haha now our humble house has a different shaped roof, new windows and doors.. it started off tiny but it now has many added floors.. Johnny Stephenson is our handyman and it was he who did all our extensions, teehee he is our family friend and he is a whiz kid at dimensions..

Linedancing grew and it became a big part of my life, but I still managed to answer our door to campers, feed our family and be a farmer’s wife.. I ended up teaching linedancing from all that I did know and at times I met lots of new faces as they danced down from my stage below.. teehee I called my lot the “Bowsden bandanas” and I would race around the room infront of them teaching my steps, I must have looked so bananas..but Life is just a rollercoaster with it’s highs and it’s lows and after that sunny day when we both got married well it whistled like the wind that blows.. rising to a ridiculous as busy as two honey bees.. then calming amidst compassion like yon briney, milk pond seas.. Children with their zealous energy keeps one on their toes and one’s future is a game of chance coz what lies beyond the present, well noone knows.. 

My girls attended the same junior, middle and high schools.. each one of them are very academic and certainly no fools.. well Jenni studied at Edinburgh university and is a Veterinary nurse, she worked away and nearer home.. nowadays she works on our holiday park as I am writing ‘Jill’s tales’ poem.. Jenni married Michael William Robson and they have two lovely daughters of their own..We are all wrapped up in each one’s lives and never feel alone.. Lauren Caitlyn Robson and her younger sister Emily Grace both girls live with their parents just up the road, on our lovely place.. Laura married Thomas Richard Brown and they have one daughter, Maisie Sienna..there lovely house is in our little town.. Maisie’s hair is a beautiful burnt henna..Laura spent three years at Manchester metropolitan university and is a Chartered accountant for all her studying.. haha Ricky stayed in the halls residence with her and other friends and there was lots of partying.. Our Amanda also completed her degree with an open university when she worked as the baker in Marks and Sparks.. now though people may not believe it she is an engineer betwixt her daftness and all her crazy larks.. Amanda is such a free-spirited soul and charms the socks of everyone she happens to meet and get friendly with on the whole..Amanda, Mumford and Darcy, her two canine companions, the three of them are always out a’walking up the highest hills and deepest canyons.. Amanda is the smallest of my three daughters, she isn’t as tall but is petite.. her little house is also local and just along our street..