R. D. Payne
A tapestry is created by diligently working many threads together to make a complete picture. This story is a tapestry of life created from true facts and events made up with various threads of a child’s life up to adulthood from birth in 1936 in a Yorkshire town to the millennium.It tells of world events that happened in her lifetime that made the headlines in the world’s press and on the cinema and TV screen newsreels. It relays a child’s perspective of the Second World War and the hardships that had to be endured by the people of her time.The promise of a normal family life shattered by the death of her mother before the child’s second birthday and the trauma experienced by her father in his dilemma and the consequences of it. It continues to describe her life after being admitted into the local orphanage, which became her home for a number of years, as one small insecure child amongst many. The story creates a picture of various stages leading up to the introduction by her father of the lady who was to become her future mother.Life progresses through the years leading to her marriage, motherhood, tragedy, heartbreak, divorce and disillusionment. Fate then gives a hand and in unexpected twist she finds herself remarried and living on a beautiful island in the Ionian Sea. She experiences life style changes that help her to grow in confidence and maturity enabling her to blend easily into the Greek way of life. She lives the dream for a short time before deciding to return to England to her family that she has missed so much by their absence in her everyday life. Upon her return she finds she has too much time on her hands and takes up voluntary work and media studies. Through the media work she assists someone with her family tree and decides to do one of her own. This leads to the discovery of a whole new family living in New Zealand.Contact was hastily made via e-mail and at a later date she was able to meet all the relatives involved who were still living, when nine of them visited her in England. After further research a bigger picture emerged of her beginnings that she had previously known nothing about but other had done. The startling facts were revealed to her. Her father had been part of two families resulting in the previously unknown relation in New Zealand and others. She manages to contact the other relatives besides from her own birth town in Yorkshire. Contact was then established and meeting arranged with all concerned. The result being that many things connected with her childhood came to her notice with their revelations.The tapestry of 64 years of her life was now complete. 3
