Memories are made of this

When the Reporter called
Laura didn’t see, but heard the heavy rain pooling as water collected in gushes and rushes at the end of the close and into the gutters as the dray-man delivered his coal.

A short time later, three pairs of eyes looked out of their front room window as the Daily Mirror Reporter and photographer walked up the garden path. Eyes that kept Laura up to date with her neighbor’s comings and goings, and who didn’t seem to miss anything. Small things like when workmen came to paint nearby houses with a fresh coat of paint, or if someone different was pushing a pram the eyes logged it all.

“Ah, you must be Esther,” said the reporter, as she put her notebook down on the piano lid. She listened whilst Laura spoke about her not being frightened of being blind; that there were compensations, such as having a surer touch and keener hearing than most people.

“I was really frightened though, when Esther was born, and so I was kept in longer than usual.But with lots of patience from the maternity staff, I learnt how to bath and look after Esther. I must have been slow and fumbling at the beginning, but I gained in confidence. Soon I was mixing baby feeds and taking Esther for walks in her pram. When she was tiny I used to listen for her heart beats. I would tickle her to see if she would laugh and if she didn’t, then I knew there was something wrong.

I have managed to nurse them all through things like whooping cough and measles!”
She continued, as she carried the reporter her freshly made cup of tea on a saucer; the tea dripping over the edge.

“I am happy but I do have regrets. I long to know what spring looks like. I can feel it, smell it, but I can’t see it. I would love to see Esther’s blue eyes and Marks mischievous grin but the funny thing is, I don’t even know what a mischievous grin looks like!”

The reporter turned to Esther who was anxiously standing behind the sitting room door!
“Your mummy has been telling me about you and what a helpful little girl you are. Have you had a nice day at school?”
Esther didn't reply but ran to her mum, sitting on the warm saggy sofa and whispered.
“You told me never to talk to strangers. Who is that funny man. He has a big camera round his neck and he keeps smiling at me."
“It’s alright darling. He is a photographer at the Daily Mirror, a big paper that wants to tell lots of people how I and your daddy are managing to bring you up with us being different. Is that alright? I did talk to you about them coming at the weekend. Don't you remember?”

What she didn’t try to explain to Esther was that she had actually contacted the paper herself after James had told her of a blind couple who he had known whose children had been taken away by the authorities simply because they were blind.

Esther nodded and walked to the kitchen to get her orange juice and biscuit. And then returned to listen as a lady, who said she was a reporter, talked to her mummy about how she coped with not being able to see and what the difficulties were and why she contacted the paper about their story.

Shortly afterwards, Andrew and Mark came running in from Mrs. N's, where they had been watching a Granada children’s television programme called Zoo Time, being spoilt with Swiss roll and bread and jam sandwich..... with remnants on their faces and would their mummy and daddy take them to London Zoo to see a panda please.

Their mummy talked quickly, whilst the young reporter with windswept hair and long red painted nails (with one being broken in her car door she said) scribbled confidently in her rapidly filling note-book. Then they went out into The Close where they anxiously joined hands and ran fast down the close (where her daddy had first taught her to ride her bike).... a magic memory she could hold in her mind for ever!

The reporter and photographer slipped away to report on what they called another bigger story, whilst life in the close seemed to be normal again. How might they sleeping in blissful ignorance be prepared for the changes that lay ahead for them all?