Chapter four
Alone Again.
1944-1945
Life is going fairly good for now, until one day Uncle Tom starts complaining that his throat is very sore. He is having trouble with swallowing food. Mum has to mash all his food, but eventually, he can only swallow ice cream. Even this is painful. As he can't live on ice cream alone, we are not surprised when he starts getting thinner and thinner. Eventually he goes into hospital.
As we don't have a phone, all our messages come through from the dairy. One day, I go to get some milk and the shopkeeper gives me a note for Mum. When Mum reads it, she has no need to tell me what it says. On the 27th of February, 1944, Uncle Tom dies and we are left alone again and destitute. The postmortem describes the cause of death as cancer of the oesophagus. The next day, Mum keeps me home from school and when I do go back, she gives me a note for the teacher.
“Ollerenshaw. Why weren't you at school yesterday?” The teacher asks me.
“I've got a note here from my mother,” I reply as I move towards him.
“Never mind the note. Why weren't you at school yesterday?” He insists.
“This note will tell you why,” I explain, as my voice starts to quiver.
“I want YOU to tell me,” he says.
“The reason is in this note,” I answer as I hand him the letter. He doesn't open it.
“You tell me. Why were you away from school?” He demands.
“My father died,” I mumble. “Pardon?”
“My father died,” I say more loudly as I burst into tears.
He reads the note and tells me to go back to my seat. He has never been less popular with the class than he is at this moment.
Things at home get rough after this. Mum has no money and she is under stress again. One time I have the iron thrown at me and the scissors thrown at me, on another occasion. Then one day Mum tells me to get some milk from the shop. When I get home she sends me back to get the bread. A short time later, she wants me to go back again for some cigarettes.
“But I've just been to the shops twice,” I complain.
“I know but I forgot the cigarettes.”
“Well I'm not going back again.”
“Go back to the bloody shop,” she screams.