Didn't have the best childhood. I really didn't have much of one.
My mother left my father before I was born. Couldn't really blame her - she had one child after the other until there were 17 of us.
I really wasn't aware of who my mother was until I was about 5 - my older sisters cared for me, and I would call them all Mummy.
By the time I was 10, I was waking my brothers in the morning after my mother left for work, and cooking the evening meals before my mother came home from work.
Weekends were taken up with shopping for groceries and cleaning the house.
We lived in a very small house. Females slept in one bedroom, the males in the only other bedroom.
The toilet was a pan out the back that was emptied once a week.
We were allowed to bathe once a week, because the copper had to be boiled to provide hot water.
Left school at 14 years and 10 months old and was sent to work. That was despite being sent to a very selective high school, where if I had been able to continue I would have been able to get a good paying job. Had to hand over my pay packet to my mother.
Oh well, I've turned out mostly OK. Not always the happiest of people, but I'm doing alright.
