Drowning in the Shallow End by Charlie Mellor

Author:Charlie Mellor [Mellor, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Humor, Nonfiction, Personal Memoir, Retail
Amazon: B00GZZ9BW2
Publisher: East View Publishing
Published: 2013-12-16T05:00:00+00:00

12. The Pennie Drops

Pennie had for the first time, done me a gigantic favour. She’d managed to drag something out of me, I’d forgotten was in. Raising awareness of a dead sister I had no memories whatsoever of, was unexpected. I’d once asked my mum about rumours of ‘a third sister’ while studying at Nene College, but then watched as she struggled to respond, to the point where she became quite flustered. I decided not to push the matter, as I could see the subject was distressing her. This solitary discussion was over before it’d started and while it wasn’t especially helpful in terms of finding anything out, I did feel a little more energised once the stilted exchange was over. It was as if the simple act of raising this thorny topic had itself been therapeutic. The aborted conversation with my mother was the only discussion about my absent sister I’d ever had, the only tangible proof she’d ever existed.

As Pennie drilled down in an attempt to uncover every morbid detail, she inadvertently provided me with the courage to investigate what had actually happened all those years ago. I didn’t consider the prospect of researching into my sister’s life in any way depressing and instead became tremendously motivated to satisfy my appetite for a better understanding. I requested a copy of the death certificate and then in the summer of 1998 contacted elderly relatives still living in the Lancashire area. Travelling to the town where we grew up in the sixties, I visited the modest terraced property where my family had lived; all in the hope it would be possible to piece together a fuller appreciation of what had taken place.

Visiting aunties and uncles I’d not seen in decades, I was presented with a series of faded photographs of someone I didn’t know. I discovered the wistful blonde girl in all of the pictures was called Janet. Here at last, in my hand was proof of her existence, the big sister who had never been discussed. According to relatives, this pretty little girl was the reason my parents had married - to avoid the scandal of a teenage couple with a baby out of wedlock. Only eight years later, the same Janet Mary Mellor who would rip them both apart when she was brutally killed in a head-on collision with a car travelling at speed on the road immediately outside their first house.

The accident happened on Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, an important celebration for the Catholics. Janet was walking back alone from confession at the local church. On route, she spotted one of her school friends and darted across the road to say hello, but was knocked down before reaching the other side. It was late afternoon and Janet was just yards away from the security of her own front door. Both my parents were devastated, with Mum in particular struggling to get over the enormous guilt she felt.

Unravelling all the clues, I carefully pieced together fragments from the past.

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