Gillian Richardson

About the Author

Colin Richardson was born in 1939. He graduated in Pharmacy and then created a small chain of pharmacies.

He is now involved with property management.

He was active in rugby, judo and skiing until common-sense prevailed.

He still plays in a 9-piece jazz and blues band.

He created this book as a family memoir and also writes under the name of Joe Castello.

All his books are available via:

www.joepublicguide.com

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Gillian Richardson

Published by Austin Macauley at Smashwords

Copyright 2018, Joe Castello

The right of Joe Castello to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with the written permission of the publisher, or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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A CIP catalogue record for this title is

Available from the British Library.

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www.austinmacauley.com

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Gillian Richardson, 2018

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd.

ISBN 9781787107168 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787107175 (E-Book)

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First Published in 2018

Austin Macauley Publishers.LTD/

CGC-33-01, 25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf, London E14 5LQ

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Contents

1 Setting the Stage

By her brother Colin

2 Frontispiece

3 Introduction

By Bim Morrison

4 Gillian

By her father

The Beginning and the End

Things I remember

Always doing

Meeting the famous

Hartie

5. All Around Me

By Gillian Richardson

Bits about the family

Early memories

The card girls

Animals and People

When we were very young

Two different holidays

Finale

6 My Life with Gillian

By her mother

We have a baby daughter

Stress and strains

Worst of all is the silence...

7 Photographs

8 Epilogue

By her brother John

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1. Setting the Stage

By her brother Colin

This chapter and the epilogue were both written in 2016, whereas all the other chapters were written between the years of 1970-1974.

Having recently found the original typed manuscript in the attic of our current family home at Spratton Grange, I decided to transfer it onto a more modern format so that it would be possible to progress Gill’s project through to full publication.

I thought that such a publication would be of interest to subsequent Richardson generations and may well also be an inspiration to others who have similar challenges to deal with.

When my sister Gill was born on August 29th 1950, my father was 39 years of age and my mother was 35, whilst I was 11 and my brother John was 8.

And to complete the time perspective, when she died at age 22 on Christmas Day in 1972, my father was 62, my mother 57, whilst I was 33 and John was 30.

You will learn a lot about Gill’s vivacious personality as you read this book, but I feel the need to emphasise a few important points.

This publication is a massive tribute to the total dedication and love that our parents gave to Gill during every hour of every day, for 22 years!

It is inconceivable that without this love and devotion that she would have survived beyond 6-8 years of age.

Our mother supported and helped Gill in every imaginable way during the daytime. This obviously included dressing/undressing Gill, moving her about and helping her perform absolutely all of her eating and toilet needs.

My father, who was totally involved in the hands on management of his pharmacy, would come home in the evening and would then play his vital role. This included sleeping so lightly EVERY night that he could respond to her frequent calls for help. These calls required him to turn her in her bed, up to 4-5 times nightly. I am still amazed that he was able to do this for so many years, and then go about his daytime business with such boyish enthusiasm and energy.

Despite the relentless focus on Gill’s needs, neither John nor I ever felt neglected by our parents when we were growing up. Indeed, we have always felt huge admiration and massive pride in both our family and our family home.

Because of Gill’s situation, our parents, and particularly my mother, made anybody and everybody welcome to our home so that Gill could enjoy an active social life. The more I think about this, the more I think that it was an amazing and remarkable achievement.

When it comes to Gill herself, you will read some very impressive tributes.

There is no doubt that she was a remarkable child, who became a remarkable young woman.

She was intelligent, witty and often quite feisty. But as she mentions herself, she was often somewhat dismissed because of her disabled body.

When Gill was 20-22 years old, she weighed no more than 3-4 stones. Had she been heavier, her 62-year-old father and 59-year-old mother would have been unable to carry her, as she often demanded and as was always needed.

I can still hear her instruct me, give me a carry please, I want to look around. It was important to her to occasionally be able to see the world from a normal standing height.

To us, Gill was just Gill, and she was totally integrated into our lives. It was possibly because of this that we rarely focussed on the sad and small body which carried her vivacious and forceful spirit – Gill was not a person to be ignored!

I clearly remember arriving at the family home on Christmas Day in 1972.

We obviously knew that Gill was very unwell, but I’m not sure that we were prepared for her death. She had been ill so many times before, but had always pulled through.

Gill was in her bed and whilst she was there, all of the family would pop in to see her and to see if she had any needs. She was motionless most of the time and breathing very shallowly.

On this particular time I went in, I stood watching her motionless body for a while, and then I saw a pronounced flick of one of her eyes. This turned out to be her last sign of life.

As I stood watching her, her death became apparent to me and I called the rest of the family. It was about 1 p.m.

I also clearly remember how I felt when I had witnessed Gill’s spirit leave her twisted and sad little body, and left us with just her empty disfigured corpse.

I remember crying because my sister had died, but also because I felt so emotional about the fact that this beautiful person and spirit had escaped from the grossly disabled body that had imprisoned her for so many years. She had been set free...

My parents were truly remarkable in their emotional recovery from what had been an all-consuming life style.

Part of this recovery was moving home from Billing where Gill died, to Spratton Grange where we divided a very large house into two wings. It was here that I found the manuscript.

They loved this new home and the access that it gave them to their two grandchildren.

We moved into the Grange in 1975 and my father died at age 70, in 1981.

My mother went on to lead a full and busy life until 2006, when she was 90. By this time she still had a legion of devoted friends from all generations – possibly because her hospitality continued to be legendary...

Her funeral at All Saints Church was packed with friends and family who joyously came together to pay their last respects to a truly remarkable woman – our mother!

It turned out to also be a remarkable funeral and is still occasionally referred to by those who attended.1

Footnotes of Setting the Stage

1. You will read that Gill spent a brief time with the depraved and predatory Jimmy Savile. Thankfully I can confirm that she was never left alone with him...

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2.Frontispiece

Anyone seeing Gill for the first time when she was in her late teens must have noticed first her small, twisted body. Only later would one appreciate her particular points of beauty; her wonderful thick copper-coloured hair, her lively twinkling eyes, her delicate hands with the long tapering fingers (nails coloured with the most ‘with-it’ shades), and her twisted legs which somehow had the appeal of a baby’s.

Intensely interested in clothes, her dress was always in the latest fashion but tastefully chosen, with jewellery which harmonised. Everything about her was so fresh, so neat and clean that she had the exquisite quality of a piece of porcelain.

Even her stillness, necessitated by her muscle failure, seemed the stillness and the relaxation of the artist’s model or a ballet dancer at rest. This physical lack of motion was so at variance with the strong, vibrant voice that she possessed naturally, an attribute which the best of public speakers work so hard to attain. Bim Morrison

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3.Introduction

By Bim Morrison

When Gill started her book she was already living on borrowed time. She may have known this, but loved life too much to want to dwell on it. I think, though, it was this subconscious knowledge which made her cram as much into each day as her frail body would allow and seize every opportunity for a new experience