No worries. I’d have bailed too if I had the option
Theo’s clan were here to plan the camping trip. It’s not too late for you to join us – see if the dropout will have his own children overnight for once?
My stomach clenched. In marrying the lovely Theo, Nicky had also gained two new parents to replace the one she lost soon after, as well as three siblings, all of whom loved each other fiercely and weren’t afraid to show it. They regularly went off on adventures including activities like white water rafting or bouldering, and, while I was pleased for Nicky, the contrast with our family was stark.
She often invited me to join them, but with two small children, the List of a Billion Things to Do and no money, let alone the energy for running up mountains, even if I’d wanted to be the hanger-on at their family outings, it would have been impossible.
Too tired for another debate about the sorry state of my social life, I sent her a vague reply and moved on to chatting about the exciting events of the afternoon. Daisy had decided to name her boy Bolt, as he’d arrived so quickly. No one was trying to talk her out of it, given that her and her ex-fiancé Raz’s previous choice had been Cobra. We also needed to discuss the fallout from Sienna taking pictures of Daisy in labour. She’d only posted them on the Bloomers WhatsApp group, and they were blurry enough to show not a lot, but it was a serious safeguardingissue, and we’d had to contact her social worker as well as making sure that none of the other eighteen people in the group had kept or shared the images.
Just as Nicky was suggesting again that I invested in blinds, my phone rang with an unknown number.
‘Hi, is this the Baby Bloomers?’ a man asked. That grabbed my attention. Usually the only men who called to ask about the sessions were social workers, and they wouldn’t be on the phone this late in the evening.
‘Yes. Can I help you?’
‘I’m wondering if you have any space in your antenatal classes?’
‘We had a baby born today, actually, so will have room for one more in our Monday sessions. But they aren’t strictly speaking antenatal classes. They’re weekly four-hour support sessions for pregnant mums who fit specific criteria. If you wanted a standard course, I offer a range of those, too. There’s a link on the Bloomers website.’
‘It’s for my sister. And she needs the Bloomers.’
‘Right. Perhaps it would be best if you told me a bit about her?’
‘She’s nineteen.’
I grabbed a scrap of paper and a pencil from the pile of junk on the kids’ craft table. ‘Okay.’
‘She went into foster care age six. Lived in a few different homes before ending up in a residential unit at thirteen. Moved out at seventeen and has lived with various men since.’
Oh boy. I’d heard different versions of this story far too often, but my heart broke every time. Behind this man’s dispassionate, factual telling of it, I detected a devastated big brother.
I also detected a hint of something familiar in his voice, but I dismissed that as I clearly didn’t know this person.
‘After she got pregnant, I persuaded her to move in with me. She’s six months now, and her midwife said she could qualify for your group.’
‘Is there any involvement from the father?’
A brief, grim silence.
‘No.’
‘Any boyfriend, or partner?’
‘Not that I know of.’
‘Okay. I’ll email over a form for her to complete before I can confirm, but it sounds like she’d benefit from joining us. Does she have a birth partner?’
Plenty of times our young mums had no one to fulfil this role for them until they became a Bloomer. Nicky and I had held the hands and wiped the brows of twenty-three mothers between us. There were a few baby girls in Sherwood Forest with the middle names Elizabeth or Nicola.
Another pause. ‘That will be me.’
‘Right, okay. The Monday sessions are female only, but you’re welcome to come along to our Thursday evening group. Like the Mondays, it’s a rolling session rather than a fixed-length course, so you can pop along and give us a try whenever.’
‘Thank you. We’ll be there this week.’
I finished my cold pasta while emailing all the details and forms to his sister. While he was the one to make the call, it was important that she started to take responsibility for her role as a mother, where she could. The completed forms came back so quickly she must have been sitting waiting for them.
I paused briefly as I read her name: Ellis.
