For the first time I many years I feel free to laugh

and actually be who I am, and who I have always been - a kind and gentle person, sometimes over exuberant, sometimes too determined - somtimes too fierce.
My beloved father died on May 10, 1992, 19 + years ago, and my world crumbled. I did not know until he was no longer in my life, how much "my being" depended on him.
I am sure that some will consider that I was co dependent on my Dad, but I do not believe so. I simply know that I loved him very much and I understood that he was a deeply wounded man. Although how wounded, not until a few years after his death.
He was a difficult man to live with, and we lived together in three different environments/periods. The first period started when I was born on June 27, 1949 (he had turned 22 on April 18), and it's easy to know that this June 27, when I turn 62, he would have been 84 & 70 days old.
I am not sure how my Dad would have taken to being that age. Would he have accepted that he would not be as good at playing tennis as he once was. He played tennis at least 3 times a week when he was 65; looked much more than 10 years younger.
English Protestant, Donald Allan Munday fell in love with Irish Roman Catholic, Deborah Fehin. Sadly, I was not ever able to discuss her with him, because if I started to question him about my mother, tears would well up in his eyes immediately, so I do not know whether it was "love at first sight", I just know that he absolutely loved and worshipped her.
I also know that neither families wanted them to marry. My Mum was slightly older than Dad (I think they met at the CAV Lucas office, Dad worked for; the office was probably the one in Acton) and they had to wait until he was 21 to marry. I know; because I was told; that she had a fiery temper and my Aunt Dorothy told me that he once arrived at her home with scratches across his face.
I have been told that at first they only rented a room in a house, and where that was, I don't know. I do know,however, that it had a mouse and one of the few memories Dad shared, was how cross he finally became with the mouse, when it had the audacity to run across his face and woke him up. I think that the mouse did not reside there much longer. Up until that point the three of them may well have lived in harmony.
I may have been born when they lived in that one room. I was told that I was born almost 9 months to the day after they married; and that there was concern that I not be born before 9 months! No sex before marriage in those days!!
I know at some point; probably when my Mum became pregnant with David, they moved to the top part of a house near Enfield, Middlesex in his older half sister, Dorothy's mother in law's house.
My brother David, was born on October 8th, 1950, when I was 15 months old. I do not remember much about the house. I was told that my iron cot had to be nailed down somehow, otherwise I would move it around the bedroom! I remember that it had a garden. I remember that there was another young girl who lived next door and either asleep or pretending to be asleep on the path, I threw a brick or stone at her. I don't think I caused her too much harm. I am sure I would have been told if I had!
My parents managed to scrape sufficient money to buy a house at 5 Arethusa Road, Rochester, Kent. I can remember that the grass had grown tall, well at least taller than me. How old I was when all four of us moved to this home, I don't know.
I don't have that many memories from that period (usually, children remember because their parents remind them of events. I do know; because I was told; that I spent quite a lot of time with my Aunt Dorothy, and I had a cot in my cousin, Stewart's bedroom and he was 4 or 5 years older than me. And if I had a cot, I suspect I was younger than 15 months And I believe that this was because I was at best an "exuberant" child, and that must have been hard for a pregnant woman to deal with and my visits with Aunt Dorothy and her husband, Uncle Syd, continued after David was born.

Crooks In Barstow

Last September on my way back from Salt Lake City, I ended up having to stay in Barstow. My front tire burst and I was towed by Barstow Towing. They sold me a tire for approximately $113.00. Leaving the next day, I drove my Chevy pick up a short distance to the reception to pay my bill at the Motel 6 I was staying at. When I returned to my pick up, it wouldn't start. A kind member of Motel 6's staff tried jump leads, but it wouldn't start, so I called Triple A. They sent me Barstow Towing again, who took the pick-up to Barstow Fuel 76. I instructed the driver to make sure to tell whichever mechanics' shop he took my pick up to, that some oil needed draining before the truck was started. I spoke with Barstow Fuel 76, the mechanics' shop and said that I thought that it might be the computer. They quoted me $140.00 for the computer and $100 for the installation. My boyfriend, Jason kindly drove all the way from LA to help me. We called the police, but they didn't believe us.