Families and Friendships Read Online Free Page B

parents.
    Claire, only thirty years old at the time, was nearer in age to the girls at the home than were some of the staff members. She sympathized with them and tried to understand their problems, although the nurses and helpers were warned not to get too friendly with the girls, especially with any one more than the others. Claire had, however, formed an affinity with Fiona Dalton who arrived at the home in the January of 1952. She understood that Fiona had been staying with an aunt and uncle for a while. Her parents, finding out about her pregnancy, had been shocked and ashamed of her and could not wait to banish her to relations in the far north of England, as far away from Leeds as possible. Fiona was such a nice girl, friendly and polite and so pretty. She often confided in Claire, who knew she would be heartbroken at parting from her baby. The girl had desperately longed to keep her daughter once she had set eyes on her, but with such intransigent parents it had been out of the question.
    And so the baby girl was adopted by Vera and Stanley. Fiona had asked Claire if she knew where the baby would be going. She had answered evasively, but as truthfully as she could, that they were not allowed to say, not to anyone, especially not to the mother of the child, but that it was ‘for the best’. And she did assure Fiona that the baby would have a very good, loving home. Neither did Claire ever tell her friends, Vera and Stanley, the name or the whereabouts of the girl who had given birth to Debbie, except to say that she was a lovely girl who had been well – albeit strictly – brought up.
    Sometimes, however, there was a happy ending when the girl, usually at the eleventh hour, was allowed to keep her baby. That was what had happened to Ginny, the girl who had been Fiona’s particular friend when they were in Burnside House. Ginny’s parents were adamant that she should not marry Arthur Gregson, the father of her baby. Ginny, the eldest child of a large family, was one of the chief breadwinners in the household, and it was expected that she would go back to her job as a shop assistant and carry on helping with the family finances. Besides, it wasn’t as if Arthur was her boyfriend and they had been courting. He was just a friend of long standing who lived nearby; they had gone out, just the two of them, for a drink one night, and things had gone too far. Arthur, though, decided he wanted to do right by Ginny, and he was more than a little fond of her; they had been close friends for ages. Ginny didn’t need much persuading to marry him, and he managed to wear down the resistance of her parents. Ginny’s baby, a big healthy boy with his mother’s ginger hair was born in April, 1952, just a month before Fiona gave birth to her little girl.
    Claire Wagstaff and Ginny still saw one another occasionally as both families lived in the Tyneside area. So it was that Claire heard news of Fiona from time to time. She had been pleased to hear that she had got married, eventually, to a clergyman. And when she and Ginny met by chance one day, when they were both shopping in Newcastle, she was delighted to hear about Fiona’s baby. The two women went to have a coffee together to catch up on the news.
    â€˜How lovely!’ said Claire. ‘And what a pretty name, Stella Jane. I’m really pleased for her. I still remember how distressed she was when she had to part with her baby. I felt sorry for her, going back to those sanctimonious parents of hers. I’m glad she managed to escape from them eventually.’
    â€˜Actually, they were both killed in a coach crash a few years later,’ said Ginny. ‘Fiona wrote to tell me. She was upset, of course, as she would be. I suppose they thought they were doing the right thing in making her give up the baby. That’s what my parents wanted me to do until Arthur managed to get round them. But they think the world of Ryan now, and of