By edanI was around 18 months old, so I did not know much, but I knew something new and exciting was happening. It was evening on June 14th, 1982, and my dad and I went to visit my mother in Warnford Hospital in Leamington Spa.
I remember the trip there in pieces. We stopped at a shop on the way up toward Asda supermarket, the shops sitting on the left. I did not understand why we were there, but I remember my dad and the feeling around him. He seemed excited, and that feeling stayed with me.
We picked up a small panda teddy bear for my sister. I can still picture that little bear as something meant for someone I had not really met yet, but knew was important.
When we went into the hospital ward, I saw my mother in a bed. I think my sister was to the left of her, in a crib on the wall. I remember yellowish colors, maybe from the ward or the crib, and that soft hospital feeling in the room. It was quiet, and strange, and full of this sense that things had changed.
My sister’s name was Claire. That is all I can remember, but even now, that moment feels like the start of something.