You know, it was really my Gran who brought me up. Im eternally grateful to her, but looking back, I have to admit her love came with a few strings attached.
I was just five when my dad, who I thought the world of, decided he didnt want a family life anymore. He left us for another woman someone younger than Mum, if you can believe it. Because wed been living in his flat, right after the divorce, he demanded Mum and I get out.
Thats how I ended up moving in with my Gran Mums mum. Dad pulled every trick in the book to avoid paying child support, real stand-up bloke that he was. So Mum and I had nothing at all and were suddenly staying in Grans little council flat, scraping by. Those were rough days. Gran only had her small pension, Mum was always off working shifts, and Id come home from school and be expected to handle everything around the house.
When I got a bit older, I started skipping school here and there and working on the building sites to help make ends meet. Education took a back seat. I felt so sorry for Mum and Gran, doing their best on pennies. I even decided Id leave school after my GCSEs and get a regular job. But thats when Grans sister, Auntie Nora, came into the picture.
Auntie Nora didnt have kids of her own, and she offered to take me in, help me with school, and look after me. She genuinely wanted me to live with her, become like family. Mum and Gran agreed, and just like that I moved in with Auntie Nora.
Honestly, things improved massively. Auntie Noras pension was decent and she really believed in the importance of education. I could focus on my studies without needing to work all the time. She even taught me how to cook and sew. Ended up finishing school with top marks, then went on to uni to study law.
Auntie Nora would always say, When you finish your degree, Ill put your name on this flat in my will. Shed tell me all the time that I was like her own family and she wanted the best for me. But life has a funny way of shaking things up, doesnt it? In my third year, I met Emily.
Good grief, she was absolutely stunning and so clever I was besotted, and, thankfully, she felt the same. We quickly knew we wanted to spend our lives together. But when Auntie Nora heard about Emily, she absolutely lost it. She insisted Emily was only after my future inheritance and nothing else.
She told me point blank that if I didnt end things with Emily, shed cut me out of her will. Of course, I told all this to Emily. She offered to break up if the flat was that important to me, but she also said shed live in a bedsit with me if she had to thats how much she loved me. In the end, I went with my heart and chose Emily. Auntie Nora stopped speaking to me, and that was that no flat, but I had my wonderful girl.
Now, its our ten-year wedding anniversary. Weve got two brilliant kids, and our love just grows and grows. Every year I get more certain that I made the right call, and you know what? I wouldnt change a thing.
