Always deny it and people won't think you're mad!

Just about all the time I lived in St Deny's with my family, there was something going on. Banging of doors, footsteps, breathing, talking, sobbing, a baby crying. We dare not say anything to anyone lest they thought we were quite mad. Mum started to take us regularly to our local church. Thursday evenings, and sundays for 2 hours. Sunday school then service. I became a member of the church choir. Enjoyed that as I like to sing. Became quite well known in the local community. Probably deafened half of them!

I digress!

When I was around 9, my uncle and his new wife moved in with us. She was a troubled soul, and apparently a diagnosed schizophrenic. They moved into the backroom which meant we had to open the front sitting room for daily use. This did not feel as comfortable as the backroom, and as children we were not happy to spend too much time in there. While my uncle and his wife stayed with us, night time disturbances seemed to become more frequent, and much louder. We had broken glass from ashtrays that had been thrown against the walls. Pictures falling off the wall in the hall way, and various items being moved around the kitchen. My uncle's wife used to scream "it's the f-ing kids!"and was quite nasty towards us. Going to the extreme of accusing one of us of stealing money from her purse. This earned the three of us a caning as one of us would not own up. We had an early night and went to sleep sobbing. As I mentioned, I was 9. My sister was a little under 8, and my brother was 6.

The following morning, we came down to breakfast to find my uncle looking very pale and tired, talking quietly to my mother. Mum looked angry and sent us into the sitting room while they talked. We thought we had done something wrong - again! My uncle and his wife packed and left. Mum called us out to breakfast and told me what had happened when we were on our own.

She asked me if I had heard anything during the night. I said no, we were too tired and upset after crying. Still feeling the stinging from the cane. Mum relayed to me that my Uncle and and his wife were trying to get to sleep, but my brother and I had kept them awake with our fighting. He had thrown open the door of the backroom and run up the stairs only to be confronted by 2 shadowy figures outside of our bedroom door - fighting. He tried to grapple with them, but found he couldn't, instead tumbling down the stairs ahead of these 2 figures. They vanished after seeming to arrive at the hall floor. He went back to his room and locked the door. He spoke to his wife and they started to pack.

The following morning on telling Mum what had happened, and explaining it away with little success; Not easy to do when it happened to you, his wife went to the kitchen and declared that she remembered what had happened to the money from her purse. She had bought shoes. She gave no thought to what she caused us.

To this day, my uncle denies that things like this happen!

» I believe that we do.