Mixed Fancies by Brenda Blethyn

Author:Brenda Blethyn [Blethyn, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

With Mum and Dad in 1977 – love the wallpaper!

15

LOSING DAD, FINDING MUM

IT WAS TIME FOR A HOLIDAY AND I DECIDED TO VISIT MY sister Jeannie in Florida and I invited Pam to come with me if she was up to it. She was more than up to it. She was now fully recovered from her heart attack but we were all treading very carefully around her. However, she was determined to have a good time on holiday. We’d spend days on the lovely deserted white sandy beaches with picnics of salad and champagne and frolic in the surf like film stars. We kept reciting the phrase ‘Drink don’t bother me!’ We had to put a stop to that after a while though, not because we thought Pam was getting tired, but because Jeannie and I were. On one of the evenings of the holiday, all three of us went to a music bar and settled into a booth for the evening to enjoy the music and to watch couples doing the Boston two-step, and maybe a little line dancing. It was fun. After a drink or two Jeannie and I went to the restroom and told Pam not to venture from the booth unless one of us was with her. Imagine our dismay when we returned to find the booth empty and Pam nowhere in sight. Naturally, we were worried. Where could she have gone? We’d only been away for five minutes and we certainly hadn’t passed her on the way back from the restroom. We thought perhaps she had gone outside for some fresh air. We scoured the car park but there was no sign of her. Maybe we should look again inside and check under the tables in case she’d fallen. It was difficult to get to the other side of the bar because of intense activity on the dance floor, where a crowd had formed to watch some kind of display. Jeannie and I nearly dropped dead when we saw Pam tossed to the ceiling in the centre of the circle. She was giving a spectacular jitterbugging display with a very rugged cowboy and having the time of her life. We were speechless. Boy could she jitterbug! We just stood and watched (not with concern but with envy more than anything else) with our mouths hanging wide open. It was a great holiday.

On my return I discovered that Michael Mills, who was casting a new sitcom called Chance in a Million with Simon Callow, had been to see Steaming and had offered me the female leading part. Remarkably, this is the job I am most remembered for. I can be walking along a quiet lane in Greece, or hiking through the outback in Australia, or visiting caves in Montana, and I’ll hear, ‘Excuse me, miss, are you Miss Blethyn? We loved that series you did with the guy with the curly hair, that’s him, Simon Callow. It was hilarious. What was that called?’ ‘ Chance in a Million,’ I remind them.

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