Three years went by and we moved to another part of the country where I worked for a private nursing agency and concentrated on the care of the dying. This was before the hospice movement. I became intimate with the mystery and wonder of the process of death. It was such a moving period. I became fond of my patients and helped them to die peacefully.

The children said,

‘When you go to your patients Mum, they must know their number is up!’

We received a phone call from social services. Those two girls wanted to come back. They were in dire straits and, starved sleeping on a bare floor and eating only bread and sugar because the bailiffs had taken all the furniture away.

I talked to each of our boys separately. Each one said,

‘ Of course you must have them back Mum.’

What generous boys, they were only children themselves.

The two girls came back. They weighed 2 and 3 stone aged 9 and 11 years. How could that happen in the UK? Neither could read or write in spite of going to school. Their behaviour was almost impossible. I nearly gave up but resorted to bribery. Somehow I got their behaviour under control so that they appeared normal but the damage beneath was far more difficult’

They still wet their beds!

And my husband still supported me (it must be love)

My husband was offered a job in Dubai, we had to get Home Office authority to take foster children to the United Arab Emirates.