SUNDAY IN MEMORY LANE (Episode 32)

Perseverance even in failure...

You know those moments when you can feel that something fundamental has changed but you can’t quite see what it is exactly?

I guess I was so busy with clients and activism that I did not realise that the little gaggle of girls who had joined our social circle were splitting the boys’ friendships with their gossip and sleeping around. These girls always behaved charmingly towards me, but I could hardly miss their antics as they flirted with Dan and all his friends, even Jay, who claimed to be irritated by them.

One of them turned up to talk to me one day looking unexpectedly serious. She was very direct and delivered her message without frills or understatement. She said that two of her friends were plotting to wreck our happiness. The plan was to destroy all our relationships, especially Dan’s and mine. It was not clear why they wanted to do this. The idea was to trap Dan into sleeping with both of them and then to trap and compromise Jay and another friend. I had no reason to disbelieve what I was told, so I warned the boys about this plot. That particular young woman never came back to our house, in fact she moved away from the entire social scene. I guessed that she had been disgusted and did not want to become embroiled by association with the two nasty initiators, Lorna and Annette.

I don’t think my son and his friends took the gossip very seriously. They had no experience of this type of scheming, and it was clear that these two young women had already wormed their way into their affections. They were all in their mid twenties and were about to learn the hard way that feminine does not necessarily mean nice.

Jay had acquired a young female border collie dog. He named her Jessie and he was training her to play football and go on long runs with him along the seafront. Jessie was adorable and indefatigable. Otherwise, Jay seemed fully absorbed, dealing cannabis and making money, playing computer games and socialising. When the girls flirted with him he ignored it and even complained that they annoyed him.

Dan got involved with Lorna and they seemed to argue a lot. Then, in a pique of rage, she marched across the road and poured her tearful heart out to Trevor, Dan’s closest friend, also adding a little spice to her venom. She told Trevor that Dan had said that Trevor was gay. For some bizarre inexplicable reason, Dan’s best friend believed her and was furious. Suddenly we were in the middle of a chaotic mess and that young woman seemed delighted with herself. While she watched Trevor and Dan arguing in the street, I watched her from the bedroom window. I could not miss the smirk on her face.

Meanwhile, the other young woman, Annette was befriending me but purely to use me as a baby pacifier and to ascertain my whereabouts, so that she could call at my house to spend time with Jay when I was out!

We were so busy that I was often out in the evenings, either with my friends, or visiting my mother or giving talks about TCM. I trusted Jay, I had no reason not to…..

That was when the news of my successes with clients began to reach the ears of various NHS consultants. One woman, who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis was discharged as fully recovered. Then a man who had been blind for many years recovered his sight and another recovered from cancer. Each of them had told their respective consultants about my herbal interventions. As a direct result of this, I was asked to give a talk to NHS staff at a large venue in Colchester. My mother was so proud of me that she came to hear me speak on that occasion. On the way home she was overjoyed with how well the evening had gone. She had mingled in the crowd and overheard a lot of positive feedback.

The next day I was asked to give a talk to a group of women who identified themselves as the Clacton Women’s Breakfast Club. They wanted me to cover a last minute cancellation the following Wednesday evening. I agreed and arrived at the venue, a small church hall, where about 18 or 20 middle aged women were gathering. They pulled some chairs round into a circle and then silently sat with their arms folded, listening intently to my explanations of Chinese Medicine. When I reached the end of my talk the atmosphere was very strange. I asked them if they had any questions. They only seemed to be interested in what I thought of Jesus.

Those women poisoned me.

You can read the rest of this harrowing tale here.

The only details missing from that account concern an emergency doctor who attended me at home and administered pethidine. He told Jay that it was an ‘ectopic pregnancy’, which was completely untrue and highly unlikely. He returned on the 2nd night and knocked me unconscious with pethidine again. It was on the 3rd night that I managed to reach consciousness sufficiently to refuse to see the doctor.

Also, while I lay in agony in bed, I could hear Annette, in the lounge below, setting her trap for Jay… Within a fortnight and, while I was still very ill, Jay’s behaviour became silent, sullen, almost hostile.

And then…. just as I was getting back on my feet, completely out of the blue, he returned from a run with the dog one morning and stated that he was leaving me. He said he was going back to his mother’s house. He simply turned on the spot and walked out of my life, taking the dog and our van with him. I stood in my lounge frozen in shock, until there was a knock at the door. I thought he had come back and opened the door quickly only to find Tony standing there!

“Are you OK?” he asked, looking very concerned. I stuttered that Jay had just left me and he came in, saying that he had a feeling that something was wrong and decided to check on me. To be honest I can’t remember much about the next few days except it was very quiet at my house. No clients, no visitors, nobody wanting to score, no friends popping in. Just an eerie silence as all the rats left the sinking ship.

After a while, one of our friends invited me to their house for a meal. I did not want to go but they insisted. While I was there, Jay and others stripped everything of value from my home. They took all the electrical equipment. They even ripped a satellite dish off the exterior wall leaving broken render and exposed brickwork. Then these ‘friends’ came to the house where I was being ‘entertained’ and told me that Jay had moved in with his new girlfriend, Annette.

I realised that I had been deceived. Not only by Jay, but by everyone involved. I immediately returned home to find my home bare and most of Jay’s personal effects gone. I piled the few rags and bits and pieces that were remaining into the wheelbarrow and I took it to Annette’s front garden where I found the lounge window slightly open. I emptied all the rubbish through the window and then I hammered on the door.

I knew they were inside, but they were not answering me so I marched over to the van and began kicking it hard. I was kicking up such a racket that the neighbours were coming out of their houses. Eventually Jay appeared and I demanded the keys to the van. He did not want to give them to me, so I punched him hard in the face. Several times. Eventually he had no choice but to give me the keys.

Having been so thoroughly betrayed by a whole bevy of so-called friends I had no desire to hang around my semi naked home to be reminded of their astonishing despicable duplicity. I was afraid that if I saw any one of them again, I would tear them to pieces.

I piled everything I valued into the van and I left Clacton on Sea that very night.

I had no idea where to go. I simply went.