About Lucy

A brief autobiography

Well where to start, at the beginning I suppose. I was born out of wedlock in the late 50's in those days and in my family this was considered a mortal sin, as a consequence of which my mother was moved into a home for single mothers and at the age of 6 months I was taken into care (the then LCC) and my mother was only allowed to see me every other weekend for a couple of hours, harsh times!

I was brought up by the local social services and have to admit to being a bit of a rebel, and a bit of a bully at school (not something I am particularly proud of now). The children's home I was sent to was on the outskirts of London (it was technically in Kent) and was a medium size unit. There was always a minimum of 9 children in residence and as someone reach 18 they were kicked out (literally in one case I remember) and young baby was brought in at the other end. When I was about 8 or 9 the old LCC was disbanded and the new GLC was formed, for reasons I will never know I was allocated to the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, although the home itself was given to the London Borough of Lambeth, this meant that one borough was paying another borough to look after me, a situation I was made increasing aware of. At the age of 13 I committed the heinous crime of hitting a teacher with a blackboard ruler and was expelled from school, the fact that he was just about to hit me across the head with it, and would have done if I hadn't grabbed it of off him and hit him first doesn't seemed to have mattered. Anyway this was just the excuse my masters needed to yank me from the leafy suburbs and stick in me in (then) grimy Notting Hill Gate, it was an eye opener to say the least, from being the big 'I am' to now just being some hick kid from the sticks, and it must have shown as I was mugged twice within the first month.

At this time I meet someone who was to have a big influence on my life, he was my new social worker, and what's more he cared about me, and took the time to sit down and listen to my hopes and dreams and aspirations for a whole afternoon an unheard of amount of time even in them days (plus he always brought me a packet of cigarettes when he came to see me which was a big plus point then, I always could be cheaply brought). One of my dreams had always been to work on a farm and this man manage to persuade the authorities that instead of being sent back to school I should be allowed to go and work on a farm, and found me a job with a farmer who was also prepared to act as my guardian whist working for him. What followed in the next 5 years will always be some of the happiest days of my life, yes the work was hard, and the hours long but I enjoyed every minute of it and would go back tomorrow given the chance. I took up day-release and went to the local Technical College, obtaining good enough grades to get a full time place to study for an NCA at the local Agricultural College.

During my time at Agricultural College I came of age (18) and received a curtly worded letter (which I still have somewhere) from the Social Services informing me that I was no longer their responsibility, and that I was on my own in the big bad world. I did however keep in touch with my social worker as we had by this time become good friends, during my time at college, agriculture in the UK underwent a massive slump and jobs just dried up, despite passing all my exams with good grades all I could get on leaving was some temporary work to cover the harvest, when that finished I would not only be out of a job but homeless as well. My friend the social worker manage to track down my mother, who was now living in East London (and whom I'd lost touch with) and after a bit of arm twisting she agreed to let me go and live with her when my job finished. I carried on applying for increasing scarce jobs in farming but with a London address it was soon obvious that no one was going to take me seriously, plus relations at home were strained to say the least as my mother and I didn't exactly hit it off.

Bearing in mind that I needed a job that put a roof over my head, as I could not go on living at home for much longer I decided to join the Army, why the Army? Well at the careers centre the RAF where on the top floor, the Navy on the 1st floor and the Army on the ground floor, and I just couldn't be bothered to walk up the stairs to see what the others had to offer. I initially enlisted for 6 years in the Royal Engineers, but during basic training changed it to 9 years (better rates of pay). I spent most of my time in the then West Germany working either as a signaller or driving Chieftain AVLB's (Bridgelayers), I was also involved in the Falkland Island campaign and served 2 tours of Northern Ireland. I enjoyed my time in the Army, there were some memorable moments as well as incidents that I'd quite happily forget, the Army taught me how to look after myself and gave me values which I still hold true to this day. I left the Army in November 1985 despite being given the opportunity to sign on for another 13!! years, I had decided that 9 years of my life was enough and it was time to move on to pastures new. During my time in the Army I had maintained contact with my mother and relations between us had improved, unfortunately her health had taken a bit of a down turn and she had become permanently hospitalised which meant I was again about to be homeless, fortunately one of my cousins with whom I'd made contact with offered to put me up in his spare room, so that solved the problem on a tempoary basis.

Needing to get work to pay the bills, and having acquired a HGV licence whilst in the Army I took up a succession of temporary driving jobs, eventually landing the job of a chauffeur in a well know company in the City of London. I am still with this company although I have now work my way up into a middle management role. In December 1986 at a company Christmas 'do' I meet the girl who was later to become my wife who was then working at the restaurant as a waitress. We didn't exactly hit it off to start with, but the relationship blossomed and we moved in together in March 1987, and in the same year after proposing in the company canteen we were married in December. The following year we moved out of London and brought a house together. The next 16 years passed in the normal domestic bliss, nothing exciting happened with both got on with our respective careers and with bringing up her son, (my stepson). In March 2003 my wife made redundant from her job and despite finding temporary secretarial work her age was now against her when it came to seeking a permanent position. In August 2004 my wives health took a down turn and she spent 3 months in hospital, and although she was still not in the best of health, she was discharged at the end of October. In March 2005 my wife was back in hospital and this time she was diagnosed as a type 1 diabetic and was going to be on insulin for the rest of her life. The diagnosis, and subsequent insulin seemed to perk her up a bit and she had renewed enthusiasm for life. My wife had a sudden stroke in the middle of July and died unexpectedly at the beginning of August 2005. I still miss her greatly, she was undoubtedly the best thing that ever happened in my life, and I doubt if I'll ever find anyone as good for me as she was.