Joshua's Grace

Chapter 9 (1)

Customs wasn't a problem, they had so little with them. Three suitcases, two bags and one pushchair. He could remember and see himself carrying two cases and one bag, while Angie had pushed the stroller with Sasha in it and dragged the other suitcase. Briar and Grace had tugged the other bag. They had been allowed to take with them only what they could carry. So they had hoisted the three cases, and two bags across the tarmac to the aircraft that was to take them away from their home. That's all they had with them when they set foot in New Zealand on a bright summer's day. It had been the start of a new life for them, initially a life that had been difficult, making ends meet, finding ways to keep food on the table and giving the women in his life a chance to start again. They had worked hard. All of them.

"They've done well for themselves." Joshua stated, seeing that Ben was beginning to look sad. "Grace lecturing, Briar a doctor with the UN and Sasha doing her post doc. You must be proud of them."

"I am." Ben said and fierce pride laced the two words. He put his beer glass down on the floor beside his chair, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes surreptitiously. Then he continued to relate his story, "I had to retrain. While I studied and worked part time Angie looked after the girls. In between times she took in sewing, and ironing and anything else that meant she could work from home. Things were tight for a long time. We scrimped and made do. We couldn't stay with Joachim for long. Joachim and his family tried to help out, but he had a young family too. We eventually got a house assigned to us, the cottage in Cambridge." He smiled in fond remembrance, "Originally, it was two army huts linked together? We've added on over the years."

The two huts had been joined to form four rooms. The kitchen and lounge were one room and meal times were a carefully orchestrated event. The three girls had shared a large room and Ben and Angie had the second room. The bathroom was a small add-on, just beyond the kitchen. It housed a shower, a basin and a toilet and it used to be a real chore taking a shower, because the room was always freezing cold. Persuading three young girls to take a shower in a cold room was a nightmare. Surprisingly none of them had even been ill. Too hardy. They'd been bred tough. Some of the melancholy and sadness disappeared temporarily as Ben recalled the stories he'd had to tell, the ploys he'd had to use to entice them to take their daily shower. One of the reasons why the girls were so good at sport was due to the fact that the school had showers. So after a game, they'd take a shower at school, in a warm large room, and then when they got home, they'd argue their way through not having to take another shower.

"Grace and Briar got the school bus into Cambridge, Angie would walk them to the junction, it's about half a mile down from the cottage, and then she'd meet them at the end of the day. I studied part time. Worked at the local supermarket stocking shelves, that kind of thing. We became quite thrifty. Recycled clothing, hand me downs." He smiled in recollection, " Probably accounts for Sasha's sense of dress." The thought had him chuckling, "She was always the last to get things, and they tended to be clothes that lasted, jeans, dungarees, tough clothes and there wasn't much point trying to get them to co- ordinate."

Ben glanced at Joshua and noticed the sympathy, "Hey, it wasn't that bad." He put his glasses back on. "We managed. It took five years part time study for me to re-qualify and I managed to get a post at the local college. By this time all three of the girls were in primary school in town, and Angie began to work part time. So we got onto the mortgage ladder, we bought the cottage, it meant security for us, but it also meant a few more cut backs. You'd be surprised at how frugal you can become."

Joshua sipped his beer. This was a world away from his lifestyle. He'd always had security. Always, until his parents had died. But even then, they'd never been strapped for cash. His parents had left them well provided for. He'd always had Zac and Mariah, had taken responsibility for them at an early age, but they'd never been strapped for cash.