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at present: with mother at
Mother and Baby Home, Hope Lodge, 46 Walls Road,
London N4

    General Remarks

    Jessie Pilkington is unable to keep and support her baby,
she is only 16 and has several young sisters and brothers
at home. She feels that it would be unfair on her parents
and particularly her mother to bring up another young
child. She is unwilling, or unable, to supply the identity of
the father, so there is no possibility of support from that
quarter. Therefore Jessie feels it is in the child’s best
interests to be adopted and have the chance of being
brought up in a happy family atmosphere.
    She has asked that the baby be placed with an
acquaintance of hers, a Mrs Nancy Hesketh, who is
unable to have children of her own. Jessie feels sure that
she has made the right decision to give her baby up and
will not go back on it.

    Particulars of Mother

    Character: good character and reputation
    Appearance: good complexion, 5ft 7ins, grey eyes
    Health: a strong and healthy family

    Particulars of baby

    Mrs Davis has seen this baby and she says she is a nice
little baby with light brown hair and grey eyes. Her skin is
very slightly dry in parts. She has a tendency to colic but a
lovely smile.

    Additional notes

    No history of mental illness, nervousness, alcoholism,
bad temper, brutality, delinquency, history of crime in the
mother’s family.

    ‘So what do you reckon to all that, then?’ Paul was
busy fanning out all the blades on his penknife and admiring
them. ‘Charlie? Y’ all right?’
    I didn’t know what to say for a minute so I read
the pages again. ‘Oh, Paul . . . I don’t believe this . . .’
I went back up to the date of birth at the top and my
throat went tight. ‘Paul, stop a minute. I think this is
my mum.’
    ‘Who?’
    ‘This Sharon Pilkington. Because, because Nancy
Hesketh is Nan, and it’s the right birthday, let me just
count on . . . 63, 73, 83, 93, 97, yeah. And, oh God, it all
makes sense, Nan was really old when she supposedly had
my mum and everyone said it was a miracle because she’d
tried for years. That’s the word Nan used to use herself,
a miracle.’ I’d put the letter down on the bed and was
holding my head between my hands. ‘I can’t take it in. She
doesn’t know, surely? My mum, I mean. Oh, Jesus, Paul, this is just amazing. It means Nan’s not my nan. It’s this
Jessie woman. Whoever she is. Wherever she is.’
    Paul shrugged. ‘Well,’ he said closing up his penknife
with a click. ‘There’s summat your psychic didn’t mention.’

    *

    ‘T HERE ’ S BLOOD in your shoe.’ I spotted the smear on
Nan’s tights as she knelt to pick up half a Rich Tea she’d
spotted under the table. Her joints really are amazing
for the age, the doctor at the hospital couldn’t believe it.
Wouldn’t believe me either when I told him how mad she
gets, because Sod’s law, she was on top form and completely
coherent, chatting away as if she’d known him
all her life. Even flirted with him. ‘I feel champion today.
Are you courtin’?’ she asked him. ‘You’re a bonny lad.
Have you a car?’ He thought it was sweet; I thought it
was monstrous. I wanted to hit her over the head with a
bedpan, only that would probably have got me admitted
instead. Maybe that wouldn’t have been such a bad idea.
    I spotted the blood in the morning as I was opening the
post. Sylv reckoned – I know I said I’d never tell her anything
again but she’s got this way – Sylv reckoned I could
just write off for a copy of my birth certificate and that
would tell me who my mother was. So I’d been running to
pick up the letters from off the mat ever since.
    ‘Have you hurt yourself?’
    ‘No. Where?’ She turned her head this way and that,
trying to see down her own body.
    ‘Your leg, your ankle. Sit down a minute. Leave the
biscuit. Sit, Mother.’
    She sank down and pulled at her tights. ‘Where? I can’t
see owt.’
    Then I