Chapter one
Struggle.
1931-1938
Everything seems dark and is swirling around me. There is this terrible pressure all around my head, especially around my temples. Now the pressure has moved to the bridge of my nose and forehead. I've got tremendous tension in the back of my neck. I'm getting quite concerned as the pain is just awful.
Something has grabbed me around the head. Ow. It's trying to pull my head off. There's something very tight around my throat, choking me. Its got hold of my shoulders now, wriggling me from side to side. Tight around my stomach. Ah, that’s better, I've struggled free.
My feet feel strange and I'm being moved too fast. The light is hurting my eyes. There's itchy stuff all over my face. Somebody's wiping it away.
I keep dreaming about my birth, over and over, for the next three days. Then I have other things to dream about. On the third day, the doctor has us all crying again as he performs a hasty and painful operation on all the boy babies. On the tenth day, Mum takes me home.
On the 21st of October 1931, Warren Allen Ollerenshaw was born to Irene and James Ollerenshaw at Greenlane Hospital, in Auckland. My mother's great grandfather was born in Ireland. John McAnulty served in India with the 38th Regiment of foot soldiers, for the British Army. After he left the army, in July 1842, he and his wife, Mary, moved to New Zealand, settling in Otahuhu.
They had eight children. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married Fred Hair and had seven children. One of these children was my grandmother, Blanche. She married Richard Weavers and had four children, including Irene, my mother.
My father's parents came from Lancashire, in England. They moved to South Africa, where Dad's father was killed, while working on the railways.
The family then moved to New Zealand where Dad helped his mother, to bring up the younger members of the family. Jim later married Irene Weavers and they had four sons. I am the fourth and last son born and now the family is complete.
One day, I tell Dad that I can remember being born. He immediately tries to talk me out of believing it.
“Who