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Hannah was born on 22nd September 1980. I think for Angie it was quite hard not to have her own mother around for such a momentous occasion and we certainly son discovered that not having any grandparents living locally – or even on the same continent – was a big disadvantage when it came to childcare. We also discovered that, while two may be able to live as cheaply as one, the cost of having a third, small and demanding, member of the family changes everything for the worse in financial terms.
It became clear that Angie would have to go back to work at the end of her six week’s maternity leave and that, she would need to work full-time and to do as many out-of-hours shifts as she had been doing before – if, that is, we were to continue to send a contribution home to her family in Jamaica. It was at that point that we really started to appreciate Bernie’s contribution to our family life. At least – to be honest – I didn’t think much about it myself. I just got used to finding Bernie there looking after Hannah when I got home two or three times a week, depending on Angie’s and my shift patterns. She would always slip away once I was there to take over, so I still didn’t really get to know her at that stage. I do remember worrying that Hannah might pick up a Liverpool accent and wondering what they would make of it when she started school!