Chapter 43
A week had gone by and it was the day before the dance.
Jo and Emma had released me from a lot of the barn dance duties that week, knowing how important it was for me to spend time with Seth, Daisy and the kids.
I loved showing them where I lived. They lived in a large town in Canada, where there was a huge population, so they found our tiny little Sandpiper Shore ‘cute’ and ‘charming’.
I remember Jo saying that people should never take living by the sea for granted, but I had to admit that of late, I probably had.
Seeing it through their eyes did me the world of good too and I vowed that I would always be grateful to live here.
It was refreshing to be amongst these two youngsters and their boundless energy.
Seth had joked and said that they were typical grumpy teenagers, and maybe they were when they were in their own environment, but in Sandpiper Shore they were effervescent and enthusiastic about everything they came across.
They had Jo and Emma eating out of their hands with their delightful demeanours.
‘You don’t have to call me Aunty Chelle, you know. You’re both old enough now to not have to bother with the aunty part.’
‘No way. We’ve never had a proper aunty of our own before. So we’re going to make the most of it. If that’s OK with you of course.’
Secretly, I loved the fact they called me aunty. I’d never been a proper aunt before either and I was absolutely relishing my new role, and it was music to my ears every time they used the word.
‘Yeah, it’s OK, I guess,’ I replied, as I shrugged casually. Inside I was bursting with joy.
‘See, you’re even starting to sound Canadian too.’ They laughed.
‘That’s being around you two all the time.
It’s catching.’ They both roared with laughter and I loved that they found me funny.
Jo and Emma always used to say I was funny but the events of the last few weeks had dimmed my personality.
They said last night, when we had a barbeque for us all to welcome Seth’s family, that it was lovely to see me getting my spirit back.
That felt good. I vowed never to let anyone dull my sparkle again.
Somehow, the girls had cajoled Seth into taking them up to London for the day on the train so it was just Daisy and me at home.
She was absolutely shattered and asked if I’d mind if she stayed behind and hung out with me.
Seth had arranged, to our delighted surprise, for us to go to a local spa for the day.
After we arrived and had checked in, we were shown to the café area for breakfast. Daisy and I, apart from having snatched conversations at home, had never spent a significant amount of time alone together before, so I wondered whether we’d get on.
She seemed to be an absolute sweetheart who adored her family, but I really knew nothing else about her.
She must have been reading my mind.
‘I’m glad we’re getting this chance to hang out together.’ She patted my hand across the table.
‘Me too.’ I smiled at her.
‘I love my girls dearly, but they wear me out. At my time of life, I haven’t got the energy to cope with teenage drama.
It’s nice to get an occasional break. Seth will be exhausted when he gets back from London.
He’s used to being out at work all day and then just getting them for a couple of hours a day when he’s home.
’ She laughed. Her face lit up when she spoke about him, her love clearly obvious.
‘I remember when they first came to us. We didn’t know what had hit us. We laugh about it now, because we used to say we’d feel less tired as they grew up. Not the case of course.’ She smiled.
‘Did you always know that you’d foster, Daisy?
I’m sorry to be so personal, and obviously if you don’t want to share, that’s absolutely fine.
I just realised that I don’t actually know that much about their history.
Would it be OK to ask you to tell me about them?
Only stuff you want to share of course,’ I asked.
‘You can tell me to mind my own business if you like too.’
‘I’d love to tell you. They adore you by the way.’
It was my turn to smile. ‘Right back at them.’
Her face changed. ‘It’s not always been as harmonious as it is now, you know, Chelle.
We’ve had our moments. I’ll start at the beginning though so you know a bit more about their background.
As I’m sure you know, Seth and I discovered quite early on that we couldn’t have children.
Even IVF never worked for us. So we, I suppose, resigned ourselves to the fact that it wasn’t meant to be.
But then someone suggested we research fostering.
We looked into it more and realised that maybe it would fulfil something within us which we’d always felt was missing. ’
‘And did it?’
‘It did for me, but for Seth, it was tougher. He was just sad. But he had lost his parents and his sister.’
‘I’m sorry I didn’t do more. Didn’t make more effort with him. With you both.’
‘Honey, I’m not saying it for you to apologise, but I am just telling it how it is. One thing you’ll learn about me is that I don’t sugarcoat things.’
I nodded. I’d rather her be that way. At least then nobody was pussyfooting around anyone else.
‘We fostered the girls when Ava was six months old and Mia was two. We didn’t know how long it was for at the time.
Their mother was a druggie and one day she decided she didn’t want them any more, so they were taken into care.
We were there as a short-term placement while they looked for someone more permanent.
I remember a friend of mine saying to me that I’d miss them when they went.
That it would break me. But what broke me more was that children like this are going into care in the first place.
They’re taken away from their families by people they don’t know, mostly strangers, and passed over to other people they don’t know.
Thank God those little girls were too young to remember. ’
I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like for slightly older children, who did know what was happening in circumstances such as this. I knew that systems in this country were on their knees, parenting being harder than ever before. Life being harder than ever before.
‘All I wanted to do was to give them a better start. Families used to visit to see if they wanted them. Some of them turned up their noses because they only wanted one child and asked if they could be split up. Can you imagine that, Chelle? Can you imagine if we’d said yes and those girls didn’t even get to live with each other?
It would be a tragedy. They’re more best friends than sisters. ’
It really didn’t bear thinking about.
‘I wanted to give them what they deserved. We had money, we had a big old house, and we had love in abundance and no one to give it to. I’m not saying that things have always been perfect between us.
All couples have issues along the way. Fostering isn’t always easy and sometimes we disagreed on parenting and I never thought that Seth and I would make it as a couple.
There were times when I thought the family would be split and that he’d make me choose between them and him.
And quite awfully now, I think he didn’t ever ask because I think he knew it wouldn’t have been him I’d choose.
Not because I didn’t love him but because I loved him dearly.
Always have and always will. But he was an adult and could look after himself, whereas those beautiful girls couldn’t.
They needed someone more. They deserved all the love in the world.
They never asked to be born and they certainly didn’t deserve to be abandoned. ’
Just listening to Daisy speak made me realise that this was exactly the reason why Seth adored her so much. She might have been a tiny woman but she had a huge heart.
‘I heard so many stories from other foster parents in the groups we were part of. You wouldn’t believe some of the stories.
Some of the foster parents even do it for the money and used to send the kids away so they could go on holiday without them.
That’s not being part of a family. We decided that it wasn’t fair on the girls to live with us on a fostered basis so we applied to adopt them and that’s when our family really did become whole.
Those girls made me a better person and I will love them as hard as I can.
Even when they are a pain in the ass. Especially when they are a pain in the ass. ’
A tear trickled down my cheek and I brushed it away with the back of my hand.
‘They make me a better person. And I love them for it with every hair on my head.’
Bonding with Daisy over breakfast and the rest of our spa day was pure joy.
She really was one of the most genuine, warm-hearted, wonderful people, and just as she said that the girls made her a better person, I think knowing her made me a better person too.
I was so glad I’d had this opportunity to spend time with my fabulous sister-in-law and hoped that our future held many more days like this.