Thought for today:
"Today is the birthday of my sister Susan, the youngest of seven siblings. Because we were born during different times in the marriage of my parents and occupied opposite ends of the hierarchical pecking order, we naturally had widely different experiences of being brought up. Also, being 14 years older than Susan, she was a mere 7 years old when I left the family home for the shores of Canada. Though we were born to the same mother and father (hopefully), it often strikes me as strange that my experience as a child was infinitely happier than hers seems to have been, despite the family being materially wealthier when Susan was a teenager compared to the years when me and my next two sisters had to endure wearing hand-me-down clothes and ill-fitting shoes that had initially been bought for another child of another family. And the reason for this disparity of home experience was down to nothing more or less than parental happiness or sadness. You see, when the first three children were growing up, my parents were deeply in love and we were all a happy family, in spite of any material deprivation experienced. But our Susan's formative years were at a time of marital dissatisfaction, when the natural by-line of my father and mother's happiness had been crossed and would never be the same again. It was as though we had been brought up in two entirely different families. Happy Birthday Susan. I love you. Your big brother, Billy x ." William Forde: April 11th, 2013
"Today is the birthday of my sister Susan, the youngest of seven siblings. Because we were born during different times in the marriage of my parents and occupied opposite ends of the hierarchical pecking order, we naturally had widely different experiences of being brought up. Also, being 14 years older than Susan, she was a mere 7 years old when I left the family home for the shores of Canada. Though we were born to the same mother and father (hopefully), it often strikes me as strange that my experience as a child was infinitely happier than hers seems to have been, despite the family being materially wealthier when Susan was a teenager compared to the years when me and my next two sisters had to endure wearing hand-me-down clothes and ill-fitting shoes that had initially been bought for another child of another family. And the reason for this disparity of home experience was down to nothing more or less than parental happiness or sadness. You see, when the first three children were growing up, my parents were deeply in love and we were all a happy family, in spite of any material deprivation experienced. But our Susan's formative years were at a time of marital dissatisfaction, when the natural by-line of my father and mother's happiness had been crossed and would never be the same again. It was as though we had been brought up in two entirely different families. Happy Birthday Susan. I love you. Your big brother, Billy x ." William Forde: April 11th, 2013
