One day at about eleven years of age I was bathing at home, my Mum was at her friends house nearby, my brother out with his friends. It was a sunny day, before the return to school, having just got back from visiting my Dad in Canada for the summer. Lazing in the bath the sunshine pouring in the window, I eventually got out of the bath reluctantly and wrapped myself in one of the huge oversize towels. My very long straw coloured hair dripping onto the towel and the floor. I padded to my bedroom and then i hear a knock at the front door. I huff as I am alone in the house. I wonder to the top of the staircase and see the front door has been left wide open by my brother. A man I do not know is stood in the porch by the open door. He is wearing a crisp white cotton shirt and smart trousers. His shock of wavy dark hair and equally dark neat beard, he looks about the same age as my Mum was at the time, thirties. He looked at me with huge brown eyes and I wondered if he was somebody important from the council or perhaps lost. I stood at the top of the stairs in my towel feeling a bit awkward. He said ‘ Is your mum home ?’ I replied she was at her friends. Before I could ask him why he was looking for my mum he said ‘Who on earth are you ?’ I say simply “ I’m Lisa, her daughter” he stares at me, he looks a bit shocked. He tells a me his name is Dave ( he doesn’t look like a Dave, he looks as though he should have an exotic international name ) I apologise for not being dressed and tell him he is welcome to wait in the lounge, whilst I get dressed and assure him I shall go find my Mum. I remember him smiling and taking a seat on the chesterfield.
This meeting with a stranger changed my families life. The stories of his treatment of my Mum, as a princess. Vicariously bringing a whole world that I did not know existed to life. I learnt how to use cutlery at exquisite tables, to eat Chinese food with chopsticks. I saw my Mum being treated so well, travelling the world and staying in money cannot buy places. This stranger, showed me what men are and can be. He did not speak very much. He was self assured and so respectful. He is to me the definition of what real men are. That meeting changed my life. Even when I reached the age of eighteen years, my mum had to marry as our home had to be sold. This man would call her regularly to see she was ok. This meeting with a stranger changed my life.
<3<3