They met at sixth-form college. Mum said she loved him because he was the most unconventional man she had ever known. At first she thought he had an act. She thought he’d noticed the way all the boys tried to attract girls, and his plan was to stand out by doing the opposite. She laughed at her young self: ‘I kept waiting for him to start shouting, running, pushing and flirting, but he never did. He would just let the school day pass him by, the chaos and noise, the fights and the tears. He would always be working on a sculpture or something or other. He was on a different planet. I would leave at the end of the day and he would be there waiting for me at the gates with his latest piece of art and a big grin.’
They got married the day after their A-level results came out. Some people thought it was a mistake; they should travel and see the world, see what opportunities were out there for them. They went to Loch Ness for their honeymoon, a week in a cottage on the shore. When the holiday was over they went to live back with their parents. At the end of the summer my dad enrolled on an advanced City and Guilds course in Design and Craft and my mum got a job with a solicitor in the town. They started renting a little terraced house near the middle of town and a year later I was born.
They were stupidly happy. Even as a kid I could see that. Sometimes though, she wanted to kill him. She would go to work in the morning and ask him to make sure he posted the cheque for the phone bill or the gas, whatever. Just one thing. She would kiss him goodbye in his workroom and he would already have forgotten. When she came in eight hours later and tired, he would still be at his desk, chiselling and sanding – the cheque on the kitchen table where she left it. It drove her mad. She would shout and he would slam his workroom door and we wouldn’t see him all night. The next day though, he would do the shopping, get the tea ready and there would be flowers on the table. Everything would be back to normal. It worked well when I was a bit older. I could post things on the way to school or go to the shop and buy bread and milk. He could just concentrate on his work and making me and mum laugh. We were a good team.