Choices

By Maureen Colley

I come from a little village in Yorkshire, home life it was very nasty, wasn’t loved, no matter what I did to try get love from my mother, she didn’t want to know. She just like though somebody disowned you, then I went to school and that was 10 times worse, the schoolteacher told me I was illiterate and an imbecile and now you call it dyslexic.

I came into Newcastle and I was still sort of lonely, felt isolated since I did when I was a child. Then met a lovely lady called Mary who was in the art group and I sat down and told everything and she told me her past, similar past in some ways but not in others and she fills forms in for me and I went on walking groups, I got my own allotment, even meeting people in this group is something and I don’t feel like I’m isolated or lonely. I go down town to have a cup of tea because I feel lonely just sitting with people is good for me and I think we all have choices; I’ve made a choice not to drink but I binge eat, terrible, so my doctor tells me off and then I cant understand why people go out to get drunk, it seems to be a culture where they have a drink before they go out and get drunk and fall about Newcastle streets, I cannot understand our children, how do they get the drink, it annoys me. I think I don’t know which is better yet, mine was a better choice than people who have drinking problems but you know I think it’s a culture thing as well and I cant understand why they’d want to go out and get drunk and think its good fun you know I think its absolute stupidness.