AFTER MADNESS - CH 2 : 1 - Relatively Speaking

My little 'sister' Debra accepted my add on Facebook. My cousin Phillip did it last week. I understand Phillip because we always got on and he is doing music too, but Deb? The last time I spoke to Deb she offered to "come down and face [me] face to face!" {sic}. Does she not recognise me? Or is it that the band's new album is coming out soon? Or is it a dastardly plot to bring me down? The fact that I recognise these possibilities is proof of how much I have changed.

Our Deb is several years younger than me. We spent a lot of time together when she was little. I don't think she ever really forgave me for leaving home when I was nineteen. Deb never liked sleeping alone but she got too big to keep sleeping in her parent's room. When she was about five or thereabouts the parents put Deb in to share with me. I couldn't take it after a while, every time woke up Deb would have me in a stranglehold, her arms tight round my neck. I'd have to prise her off.

When Debra was born - Margaret had her at home - I took to her straight away. Margaret used to burst out laughing every time she looked at one of us.
"Your faces are so big!" she'd shriek.
Of course she was looking at the baby all the time, but I think her liking for codeine had a lot to do with it too. I loved making the bottles and feeding Debbie. No-one would have thought it. I'd always hated dolls with a vengeance. I used to cut off all their hair and pull off their arms and legs.

Margaret wanted to call Debbie Tina! That was where I put my foot down. One can only take so much.....
"There is no way you are calling any sister of mine Tina!" and that was it, as far as I was concerned.

Margaret had no class. I don't think she was "sent away to boarding school because Lucy didn't like" her. She was evacuated to a boarding school because of the war. This is a woman who had no idea how to behave and who thought Crimplene and Fun Fur was a good look! We eventually settled on Debra Mary - I wanted Deborah but I let it go. I used to call Deb "De bra of de mother.." I was young!

Debbie was a lovely little kid, with just the right amount of mischief. She took after her dad in looks and her mum in build. She grew pretty tall, about 5'8" or thereabouts. Not so much the 'little' sister now. She married her childhood sweetheart and had three daughters. They are still together.