Fiddler's Cavern

Paul Kelly

Description

My name is BOO GREGSON and I was born with Down's Syndrome, in the year 1940 when the war was at its worst, but naturally, it had little effect on me as there was nothing I could do to help the war effort in any way, but it doesn't make much difference to my life as I am very much loved by my brother Robert and his wife Laura, however, I cannot say the same for my father. He was disgusted when he saw me at birth and ran out of the house screaming and I understand now that he considered seriously that my mother should have had me aborted My mother was different and had she lived, she would have loved me too, but sadly she contracted cancer and died when I was just two. I am twenty-one now. My brother and I both feel that my mother really died of a broken heart due to the way my father treated her after I was born. My father left us in desperation after my birth and we never saw him ever again until he arrived one day to tell us to get out of the house. This narration is the story of my life, IF I COULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELL IT, with the title of 'FIDDLER'S CAVERN' . . . but I am not able to walk properly and am constantly in a wheelchair and my eyesight and hearing is bad. I can see a little through my right eye and I can hear a little too in my right ear, but apart from that I just sit on my arse doing sweet damn all every day so you see this story is PURE IMAGINATION from my simple little mind. It tells you what I would have liked to have . . . had I been born normally. It tells you of my dreams; of the people I have seen from my chair and what happens to the lives of those around me..

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 05 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782345947
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page
FIDDLER’S CAVERN
By
Paul Kelly



Publisher Information
Fiddler’s Cavern Published in 2013 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.
Copyright © 2012 Paul Kelly
The right of Paul Kelly to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.



Introduction
My name is BOO GREGSON and I was born with Down’s Syndrome, in the year 1940 when the war was at its worst, but naturally, it had little effect on me as there was nothing I could do to help the war effort in any way, but it doesn’t make much difference to my life as I am very much loved by my brother Robert and his wife Laura, however, I cannot say the same for my father. He was disgusted when he saw me at birth and ran out of the house screaming and I understand now that he considered seriously that my mother should have had me aborted My mother was different and had she lived, she would have loved me too, but sadly she contracted cancer and died when I was just two. I am twenty-one now. My brother and I both feel that my mother really died of a broken heart due to the way my father treated her after I was born. My father left us in desperation after my birth and we never saw him ever again until he arrived one day to tell us to get out of the house.
This narration is the story of my life, IF I COULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TELL IT, with the title of ‘FIDDLER’S CAVERN’ . . . but I am not able to walk properly and am constantly in a wheelchair and my eyesight and hearing is bad. I can see a little through my right eye and I can hear a little too in my right ear, but apart from that I just sit on my arse doing sweet damn all every day so you see this story is PURE IMAGINATION from my simple little mind. It tells you what I would have liked to have . . . had I been born normally. It tells you of my dreams; of the people I have seen from my chair and what happens to the lives of those around me.
Please be patient and read on, knowing that I am happy thinking and dreaming as I do.



Chapter One
Friends From My Childhood
When I was a little tot about two years of age, Laura and Robert took me to see a lady by the name of ADA ARMSTRONG... as this lady had organized a club for young children who had health difficulties and the reason why Ada did this was because she had given birth to a little boy and he had Downs Syndrome. Laura thought that as I was unable to go to any school, this lady would be able to teach me more about life and especially as I was just sitting around at our bungalow doing nothing all day.
Now when we got there, we could hear some screaming and shouting and Ada told us that she had a little girl in her club who had been thrown out of her parent’s home because she was beyond control and they didn’t want her. This little girl’s name was EMILY WARDSWORTH and when she appeared before us I could see that she was very annoyed about something and she had been crying, but by some strange coincidence, when she came near to where I was in my chair, she stopped crying as she stared at me and I thought she was about to scream again and possibly tear my hair out with the bad name she had been given at the club, but NO.... things were quite different and Ada looked on with fear in her eyes as she stood in front of my chair expecting anything to happen to me, but Emily smiled at me and came towards the chair where she moved around Ada and gave me a hug. Everyone in that room stood back in confusion and it was Ada who tried to explain the situation, saying that of all the children in her club, NONE of them could get along with Emily, nor she with any of them.
Emily stayed with me for some time and we just hugged each other without speaking... well, I could only grunt and gabble, but my English would never be understood whereas Emily could speak alright and she kept whispering something in my ear which I THINK was that she was telling me that she thought I was very nice and she wanted to say how much she loved me.
This was something totally strange to me as Emily was the first little girl I had ever met and her feelings for me were just one big surprise, however, I immediately saw a different side to Emily’s character and I pleaded with Robert, (in my basic language) which I knew he could understand where others couldn’t, to invite Emily home with us so that we could sit out in the garden with a cup of tea and cake. Laura could understand what I wanted too as she had been so kind to me in every way at home. She would sing to me in the evenings and we would laugh together. I could hear the songs she was singing, but they were not like what Robert used to sing to me, as being a Scot, Robert sang and enjoyed the Scottish songs. Laura tried to sing in the same Scottish dialect as Robert, but she was English and her proper pronunciation didn’t seem right somehow. “I belong tae Glesga, dear auld Glasga toon... ” when Robert sang it became “I belong to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow town,” when Laura joined in, but we all had a laugh and the village where I was born in Scotland called ‘Dornadoon’ would have laughed with us too if they had heard us.
Emily did come home with us that day and I am sure she was thrilled to be made so welcome and I thought that perhaps this was the only trouble with Emily and to why she could be so sharp tempered and given to moods of screaming. It was when she felt she was unloved and I think the fault lay mostly with her parents. Why do people have children, I thought, if they only wanted dummies or saints and then I reflected back on myself with my bad hearing and worse speech. I was quiet most of the time, but that was just because of what I was and not by any virtue
I remember when I was a very small little girl and Robert had not yet married Laura, that as my father had left us on our own as my mother was dead, Robert was the only person in the house, which was a five bedroomed house, and he had to get a job somewhere, there was a fear that I might be left on my own and in desperation, Robert asked my aunt Lucy, that’s my mother’s sister if she would spend some time with me when he was out job searching, but as aunt Lucy had only just got married and was looking for a home, herself, it seemed the perfect solution and aunt Lucy with her husband, Malcolm moved into our house, but she was not the Carer that Robert had hoped she might be as she too was looking for a job as indeed was her new husband and they were away from the house for most of the day.
This may have seemed normal, but in the circumstances, I was restricted in using the toilet which was upstairs in our house at 45 Holmes Road in Dornadoon... and whereas Robert had done everything for me like toileting, bum cleaning etc., I was left for hours without anyone near to do anything that at that time, was necessary. When Robert found out about the ‘negligence’ he went ‘over the top’ and told my aunt and uncle to get out, BUT that meant that he was restricted in looking for work and we had a rent to pay, electricity and gas and of course food.
Robert was then back to square one, which meant that he had to stay at home, but as a bright idea, he thought it might be a good thing to get me a pet and after a visit to the Dog’s Home, we brought “WOOF” home with us and things seemed to brighten somewhat after that, however, and perhaps my getting a pet was an answer to prayer, we had a visitor from the Home to make sure that we had the proper facilities for looking after a little dog and this visitor was LAURA. She was an inspector at the Home, but when she came to visit us, she was fascinated to see me as I was and with only Robert to look after me. She literally fell in love with me and offered to visit us at regular times so that I would not always be alone and this would give Robert more time to look for a job. Everything went on fine from there and Laura fell in love with Robert and although I was sure he felt the same about her, he was always afraid that if he did marry someone, that person would think in time, that he had only married her so that she could look after me and Robert was totally against that idea. I watched the two of them day after day becoming more and more interested in each other but Robert would look at me with love in his eyes and shake his head when I would look at Laura and he could tell what I was thinking.
Robert gave all his time and energy to looking after me and I wished time and time again that he would tell Laura how much he loved her, but it was a long time before that ever happened and when it did... IT WAS A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN... and I am happy to say, that Laura was number ONE in Robert’s life and much as he loved me I could well have been considered not number TWO, but number ONE AND A HALF. They were married in 1948 and I was just nine. Robert was twenty-four and Laura was just nineteen. Robert wore his kilt attire that he had made for his degree at university and Laura wore a simple white dress with a very short head veil. It was a simple ceremony at our parish church and I was bridesmaid in my wheelchair.
My little dog, Woof died when he was just twelve years of age and I was heartbroken. He had been with me since I was two and life became very lonely for me when Woof died. We buried him in the garden where I could sit with