When I was a child I was very plain, awkward, and shy and spent countless nights crying because of the taunts and bullying I received at school, both my parents were disabled, my father had osteoarthritis and my mother suffered from severe depression, although at school I was taught by nuns I found them cold and unapproachable and I had no friends I could trust as I was always shunned by my class mates and rarely went out to meet anyone of my own age, I felt I couldn’t talk to anyone about what I was going through but I was thankfully close to my parents.

On the days my father was cared for my mother very occasionally took me with her to visit her good friend Bella where there was always lovely cakes and goodies she baked for us to enjoy. I was ten years old at the time and remember she had a daughter Sonja who also often made us chocolate drinks. Unfortunately Bella also had a son Billy who was about fourteen years old who made my life a hell, he called me names, pulled my hair, and threw me into a bunch of stinging nettles, I always dreaded him being there. Needless to say I grew up to be a very plain, awkward and shy teenager and at the age of eighteen got myself a job in a clothing factory, I enjoyed that because I could sit at my machine quietly working with no one bothering me, popular music which was my passion at the time was playing most of the day, and I generally kept myself to myself apart from occasional remarks to the two machinists who sat either side of me, one of them a girl named Shirley the same age as myself used to sing while she worked and one day we engaged in conversation about music and started taking our tea breaks together. Shirley was a very pretty Scots girl from Perth and the first real friend I ever had, she didn’t mind that due to my parents health I couldn’t go out often, but we spent what time we could after work together, and I was allowed to go to her house where she taught me how to do my make up properly, do my hair in a style that suited me, and sometimes we went shopping together and bought the latest fashions, when I looked in the mirror I hardly recognised myself. Then Shirley asked me if I would like to go on holiday with her and her parents for a couple of weeks, I was very excited and pleased when my parents made it possible for me to go.

The South of England is a beautiful place with lots of interesting things to do, the sun was shining and for the first few days we spent the time exploring the area, then one afternoon Shirley and I decided to take a walk along the promenade, as we stopped to have our photograph taken together we saw two good looking lads in soldiers uniform smiling and waving to us and we didn’t mind when they came over to chat to us, in conversation we found out that they came from the same area as us and knew many of the places where we lived, I was quite attracted to one of them and felt sure I had met him somewhere before, and we seemed to have the same sense of humour and interests in lots of things. He explained as he was in the army he would have to go abroad soon and at present both himself and his friend were on leave, I was very surprised when he asked me for a date, and even shocked when he introduced himself as Billy, I then asked him if he had a sister called Sonja and it was his turn to be shocked, “ yes” he said as he tried to figure out who I was, “ don’t you recognise me, I’m Margaret” I replied, as recognition slowly dawned on him he looked totally flushed with embarrassment and said “ Well! I never knew you would turn out like that” I had already told Shirley my past experiences about how he was one of the crowd who made my life a misery, and she having heard the conversation looked stunned and whispered in my ear, “ What are you going to do, hit him?” “ No” I whispered back, and turning to Billy I asked “ If you had known who I was would you still have asked me for a date?” recovering a bit he said “ Yes I am so sorry when I think of how I treated you, please come on a date with me and I promise I will make it up to you.”

Well! I did go out on a date with him, and Shirley who was together with his friend Pete and it was great, we went on a picnic together, picked blackberries and had coffee in a small café where we got to know a lot more about each other. After the holiday was over and we returned home Billy and I wrote to each other frequently, and sometime later I received a letter I did not want to get telling me that Billy had been killed in action, I was so grateful to have Shirley as my friend then. When I think about it now I no longer remember any of my past with sadness, it was all a life experience I learned from, not to hurt or judge people, because people can and do change just like me and Billy.