The Midwives of Lark Lane

by Pam Howes

  She shook her head and sighed. ‘Maybe try and persuade her to choose a name for baby though. I know he’s being put up for adoption, but I do think it helps a mother if she can give her child an identity. It’s just something to hold on to in her mind; because sure as eggs are eggs, over the coming years there will not be a day that goes by when she doesn’t think of him. And it will be so much nicer to remember him with a name that she’s chosen.’

  Cathy and Karen slipped back into the room and took a seat either side of Jennifer’s bed. Karen handed Jennifer a tissue and patted her hand. ‘Is there anyone at all you’d like us to call for you, Jenny?’

  Jennifer sniffed and shook her head. ‘I’ve been racking my brains over what to do. The only person that might help me is Billy’s older married sister Audrey. She lives in New Brighton. She’s a really nice lady and loved her brother so much. She was heartbroken when he died. My parents forbade me to get in touch with her, so I’ve been unable even to write to her. She’s not on the phone and she doesn’t know about the baby. We were going to go and see her at the weekend of the same week Billy was killed. Once the funeral was over and I told Mum and Dad about the baby they said I was to have no further contact with any of his family. They didn’t want them interfering, they said. They wouldn’t even let me out of their sight to go and see Billy’s parents and then of course they sent me away to my aunty’s. I’ve had no money for train or bus fares to even do a secret visit back to the Wirral to see Billy’s family. My baby is part of their family and I’m sure they’d help me. But how can I do it without mine finding out and putting a stop to it?’

  Cathy smiled and patted Jennifer’s hand. ‘Don’t you worry. We’ll help you to do that,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll go downstairs and get you some stationery from the hospital shop. Write to both Billy’s sister and his parents this afternoon. I’ll post the letters for you tonight on the way home from work. I’ll write down the ward phone number for you to add to the letter, so they can ring to let us know if they want to come and visit you – we’ll be taking you back down to the ward shortly. They won’t clash with your own parents at visiting time because they won’t come here until we tell them it’s time for you to go home and they come to collect you. We can take it from there.’

  Jennifer gave a watery smile. ‘Will it work, do you think? My parents say that because I’m under twenty-one I have to do what they say, but now that I’ve seen my baby and he looks so much like Billy, I just can’t let him go. And now I know the other one died, well…’ Her lips trembled. ‘I owe it to my Billy to look after him, don’t I? He’s our flesh and blood and I want to keep him. Thank you for saying you’ll help me, Nurse Romano. It means such a lot.’

  Cathy held back her own tears with difficulty. ‘Have you thought of a name for baby, so that you can tell Billy’s family?’

  Jennifer nodded. Her blue eyes filled again as she said, ‘William Peter, after his daddy; Billy junior. And our other baby I’m thinking of as Michael James. James is Billy’s dad’s name. I hope my Billy will look after his son in heaven as I will look after our Billy junior down here.’

  Karen blinked rapidly and Cathy’s eyes gave up the fight to hold back tears and they each gave Jennifer a gentle hug.

  ‘That’s just perfect,’ Cathy whispered.

  Eight

  It was Cathy who took a phone call on the ward three days after the birth of Jennifer’s baby, from a lady called Audrey Broome. She told Cathy she was responding to a letter she’d received from her late brother’s fiancée Jennifer Moore. She asked if she could come and visit tomorrow. Cathy told her she was welcome any time and that she would let Jennifer know she was to expect a visitor. Audrey said she planned to get a ferry over from New Brighton and would book into the Adelphi Hotel for a few nights so that she could visit Jennifer more than once.

  Cathy popped her head around the door of Jennifer’s room. It had been decided that due to her circumstances, she was to keep her single room for the time being. She was lying on her bed reading while baby Billy snoozed in his little cot beside her. The pair oozed contentment and Cathy couldn’t bear the thought that they would ever be parted. ‘I’ve just taken a phone call from this young man’s Aunty Audrey,’ Cathy said, watching Jennifer’s face light up with a delighted smile. ‘She’s coming to see you both tomorrow. Isn’t that great news?’

  ‘Really? She’s coming here? Oh, Nurse Romano, that’s wonderful. Thank you so, so much.’

  ‘It’s my pleasure. Now, how about I help you to take a bath and we’ll wash your hair so that you’re all bright and breezy for tomorrow.’

  At seven o’clock that night Alice let in Jean, Karen and Ellie. ‘Follow me, girls.’ She showed them into the back room where Cathy was waiting with Johnny and Jimmy, who had pages of handwritten figures and some photographs waiting on the dining table.

  ‘How do, girls, come and sit down,’ Johnny invited. ‘Cathy’s talked to us about your private maternity home plans and we both think it’s a smashing idea.’

  ‘You do, really?’ Jean gasped. ‘Well, that’s marvellous to know.’

  Johnny nodded and continued. ‘It’s early days and we know financing needs to be figured out, but where there’s a will there’s always a way. We’ve put in an offer to buy the house anyway and it’s been accepted. We’ve arranged for one of the sons to meet us there at half seven tonight to show us around again. So if you girls are happy to join us and use your imagination, we might be able to work out some internal plans that will suit your needs.’

  ‘Yes please,’ they all shouted at once, laughing.

  ‘I can’t believe it,’ Jean said. ‘Oh, I really hope we can make this happen.’

  ‘Aye, well Cathy’s told us about young Jennifer and her baby and I think there’s a big need for somewhere like this to help young lasses like her. And there’s them that are willing to pay for a bit of preferential care as well,’ Jimmy said. ‘We feel it’s a very worthwhile project.’

  ‘We think so,’ Cathy said.

  ‘And you might just find a place for me to work with you,’ Alice said. ‘Be just the job as it’s so much closer than travelling to the Royal.’

  ‘Mam, that would be great,’ Cathy said. ‘We’ll need various levels of staff to give us a hand. You love working with children and we’ll need help in the nursery with feeds and what have you.’

  ‘You’ll be more than welcome, Alice,’ Jean said. ‘In fact we’ll bite your hand off now and say that you joining us is a given.’

  Alice beamed. ‘Right, well this calls for a quick celebration cuppa before you all go and look at the house.’

  ‘We’ll have one when we come back, chuck,’ Johnny said, looking at his watch. ‘We need to start walking over to Woodlands Road so we’re not late. Come with us, Alice. See what you think.’

  Alice smiled. ‘I’ll just make sure Sandra is around, then she can keep an eye on Roddy and Lucy. They’re already asleep so they won’t be a problem. Was she out the front when you came in, girls?’

  ‘Sat on the front wall talking to Ben,’ Karen said. ‘Well more like staring into his eyes while he did all the talking. Young love, eh!’

  Alice rolled her eyes and went to find her daughter. She ushered her indoors with Ben and told them to sit quietly in the front room while they all nipped out for a bit. ‘Don’t play records loud or you’ll wake the little uns. Our Rosie is doing her homework upstairs. Hope you’ve done yours, young lady.’

  ‘Yeah.’ Sandra flicked her long hair back over her shoulders. ‘Course I have. Finished it before I went to call for Ben.’

  ‘Right, well, just behave then. No hanky-panky.’

  ‘Mam!’ Sandra exclaimed, blushing furiously as Ben tried to hide his smirk and Cathy popped her head around the door.

  ‘She used to say that to me and Gianni,’ Cathy said with a grin.

  ‘Yes, and looked what happened there.’ Alice folded her arms.

  ‘Well it all worked out good in the e
nd,’ Cathy said, giving her mam a playful shove on the arm. ‘Anyway, Ben, I need to pop round to see your mam soon. I’d like her to mind Lucy for me. Granny Lomax isn’t very well. She could do with a rest.’

  ‘Sorry to hear that, Cathy,’ Ben said. ‘I like your granny. She gave us chocolate cake when me and Sandra popped in to see her. I’m sure Mam’ll be glad to help you with Lucy.’

  ‘What’s up with Granny?’ Sandra asked, her face clouding. ‘We all love her; she’s been like a proper grandma to all of us and we haven’t got another.’

  ‘Her cough isn’t getting any better,’ Cathy told her. ‘I’m going to make her go and see the doctor soon and I’ll go with her. We’ll get her sorted. Don’t worry. She’ll be fighting fit again in no time.’

  ‘Of course she will. Tough as old boots is Granny,’ Alice said. ‘We’ll see you in a bit, Sandra. Help yourselves to some pop and crisps from the kitchen.’

  Johnny and Jimmy led the way across Lark Lane and down onto Aigburth Road and the girls following, all talking at once. They turned left into Woodlands Road and Johnny signalled for them to stop as they approached a large white, double-fronted house set well back from the road, fronted by a low brick wall and a tall hedge that afforded some privacy. The double wrought iron gates stood open, and a large shiny black car was parked on the drive.

  ‘Barry’s here already,’ Johnny said as the door flew open and a smiling blond-haired man who looked a similar age to Alice, early forties, greeted them.

  ‘Come on in,’ he invited, holding the wide front door back for them all. ‘Quite a party you’ve brought, Johnny.’

  Johnny smiled and introduced them all as they trooped into the cavernous hallway. ‘My wife, Alice. Her daughter Cathy, and the other lovely ladies are nurses and midwives from the Royal Hospital who have a few plans up their sleeves for this place.’

  ‘Pleased to meet you all. Do tell, or are the plans a secret for now?’

  Jean shook her head. ‘Not really. But of course everything’s in very early talking-it-through stages. We’re hoping to make the house into a lovely private maternity home as well as our own home, if the council will grant us planning permission.’

  ‘That sounds a grand idea to me,’ Barry said. ‘I’ll keep out of the way while Jimmy and Johnny show you around. There’s still a couple of old bench seats in the garden so I’ll go and sit out there and have a ciggie. Just explore to your hearts’ content, ladies.’

  ‘Where would you like to start?’ Johnny asked.

  ‘The kitchen, I suppose,’ Jean said. ‘We’d be doing a lot of cooking so it needs to be a big one. You lead the way and we’ll follow.’

  The kitchen was wide and long with enough room to fit a couple of small tables and chair sets in for the staff to enjoy their meals while on duty. It needed refitting to bring it up to date, but the possibilities were endless. There was a utility room off at the end, big enough for a couple of domestic-sized washing machines and dryers like they had in the laundry at the hospital. The downstairs cloakroom housed a toilet and washbasin, both of which needed replacing. Behind the utility room was an area of garden that would be good for drying clothes on a fine day. The lounge at the front was enormous as well as light and airy. It had a large marble fireplace that would be cosy to curl up in front of and watch the telly on cold winter evenings. Johnny led them through to a large, light dining room with big windows, overlooking the garden. Another sitting room at the back with a sunroom attached made Jean smile. ‘It’s a perfect place for babies to sleep in their prams if the day is wet or too cold to put them outside.’ Jean squinted through the windows and pointed at a building at the bottom of the garden. ‘What’s that down there?’

  ‘It used to be a garage,’ Jimmy said. ‘But the owners had another one built at the side of the house. The old drive down to it has been grassed over and the garden all fenced in safely. I think their kids used the building as a playhouse. It has a little staircase and a room above to hide in. Great for hide-and-seek games. You’d be able to store a lot of stuff in there. Gardening equipment and what have you.’

  Alice had been quiet as they looked around the house. It was definitely the one Jack had lodged in. She’d recognised it as soon as they walked down the drive. But not to worry. She wasn’t going to let anything put a damper on this wonderful plan the girls were so enthusiastic about. And besides, Jack was well and truly locked away for a few more years and would have no reason to show his face again in Aigburth if he knew what was good for him.

  Upstairs they wandered around the five large bedrooms. ‘Some of these can be divided into two,’ Jimmy said. ‘Maybe that’d be better for your private mums. I reckon with a bit of shuffling around we can make eight bedrooms. We can add another bathroom up here as well. Perhaps put washbasins in the private single rooms like they do in seaside boarding houses. Makes a nice touch, I always think.’

  Alice chewed her lip as she gazed around. It was all going to cost an awful lot of money and she wasn’t sure how they’d find enough to do it; but she kept quiet as she seemed to be the only one worrying on that score. And where would the babies be delivered? They’d need a room solely for that purpose. And what if there was a problem? Mind you, an ambulance or doctor could be summoned right away in that case. These girls knew what they were doing, or they wouldn’t have thought the idea up in the first place. There were a few private maternity homes in Liverpool, but nothing in their locality, so they’d be the first. She pushed any doubts away and tuned in to what Jean was saying to Johnny and Jimmy.

  ‘We’ll let you draw up the plans and I’ll make enquiries with the council about getting the permission we need. We’ll also be speaking to our dads to see if they can help financially.’

  ‘We’ll go and tell Barry we’re done for the night then,’ Johnny said. ‘Now it’s just a case of time, getting everything sorted and we’ll see how it goes. I think this calls for more than a celebratory cuppa though. We’ll call in the offie on the way back and get a bottle of sherry and some brown ale.’

  Gianni smiled as he strolled back to the fairground from the telephone box on the edge of Saint George’s Fields in York, where they were pitched for the next week. He’d just spoken to an excited Cathy, who’d told him of a plan she and several other midwife colleagues were cooking up, along with her stepdad and Millie’s husband Jimmy. They’d all been to look at a house last night. It sounded good, apart from the financial side of things being a bit iffy. But it was early days, so things might sort themselves out. She’d also told him that their friends Davy and Debbie wanted to buy his house and to give them a call. He’d do that tomorrow night as he’d need to make sure Davy was home from work first and it was a bit too early now. He’d be too busy later tonight with the fair. But if they did buy it he could invest some of his money from the sale into the midwives’ venture. He wouldn’t say anything to Cathy yet as he didn’t want to let her down if things changed and they didn’t buy the house after all. They’d have to wait and see. He couldn’t wait to see her and Lucy again in a couple of weeks when the fair pitched up at Sefton Park. It had been a long time and he missed them both so much. His dad Luca greeted him with a pat on the back as he walked into the caravan home belonging to Luca and his wife Maria.

  ‘How’s my lovely granddaughter doing?’ Luca asked. ‘Being a good girl for her mama, I hope.’

  ‘She has her moments,’ Gianni said. ‘But on the whole Cathy says she’s doing fine. Can’t wait to see her again.’

  ‘Nor I,’ said Maria, his stepmum. ‘I miss her, I miss both of them. Not long now and they’ll be joining us again. You boys get from under my feet while I start to unpack. Supper will be ready in an hour.’ She shooed them outside, laughing as they protested.

  Kneeling on the floor, Maria looped her long black hair back behind her ears, finished unpacking the last of the newspaper-wrapped china and glassware and sat back on her heels. It always seemed such a time-consuming chore. They might be caravan dwell
ers for most of the year, but she liked to keep her standards up and use the fancy stuff once they were settled, and the couple of hours spent unpacking was worth it in the long run. Mind you, Luca and Gianni were always so hungry when they came in that they wouldn’t care what they ate their meals off. She looked up as her daughter Eloisa came indoors and plonked herself down on the bench seat near the dining table.

  ‘Gianni and Luca are almost done setting up the wall of death and everyone else is helping with the other rides. Why are you in here idling when there’s work to be done?’ Maria asked. She got to her feet and smoothed her long cotton skirt over her knees.

  ‘I just needed a break,’ Eloisa said. ‘We’ve not done too bad considering we’re a man down since Bobby left us. Marco’s helping with the dodgems and ghost train because Ronnie’s hurt his hand and is about as much use as a chocolate teapot, so Lenny pulled him off erecting duties. He said the last thing we need is accidents.’

  Maria nodded her agreement. Eloisa’s boyfriend Ronnie was a bit too dopey at times. She often wondered what her daughter saw in the lad. ‘Indeed. You can give out the flyers tomorrow in the town and take Ronnie with you. We’ll get some extra casual help now we’re in York. There are usually plenty of students looking for part-time work around this time of year.’

  Nine

  Cathy went straight to Jennifer’s room when she reported for duty. She smiled as the girl cradled baby Billy in her arms. ‘Are you ready to leave us?’ Billy was ten days old and they were both due for discharge. Jennifer’s wound had healed well and her stitches had been removed a couple of days earlier. Billy’s sister Audrey was taking the pair to New Brighton to begin a new life with her and her husband George. There had been no hesitation on her part in offering Jennifer and Billy a permanent home. They had no children of their own and it was unlikely to happen now, Audrey had told Jennifer. So to have her younger brother’s child growing up under their roof would be a joy to the couple.