She's Leaving Home (68 page)

Whatever the outcome the quartet had broken up. Colette would never share in all this bewildering change. The Irish girl had been trapped in her misery and had been unable to find a way out, let alone a path as worthwhile, as enticing as a Cambridge scholarship. Where Helen had been faced with too many alternatives and had been forced to make choices she would have preferred to avoid, Colette had had no choices at all.

Twelve months before the two of them had ridden on the bus back to school from the Cavern session, best mates despite the contrast in their backgrounds. They’d argued about pop groups, indulged in sheer triviality. The before them had been similar. Now Colette was gone, and the memory of her full of anguish.

Tears obscured Helen’s vision and she shut her eyes. Her lip stung. The damp breeze was comforting on her flaming cheeks.

The big seagull was still causing a rumpus. With a squawk it dived towards her as if to investigate. The swoop disturbed the smaller birds already nesting who flew up with little cries. One fluttered blindly into her face and instinctively Helen clutched at it. Her fingers closed over it, and she held the bird in her hand.

It lay trembling in the cup of her palms, its wings spread out to balance, its heart beating rapidly. She could barely see the tiny creature in the light from a window, only that it was very small and drab brown, but vibrantly alive. Helen lifted her hand nearer her nose to examine it and wondered idly what it might be. It looked familiar, as if she ought to know its identity.

She opened her hands to the sky. The tiny brown bird paused then rose above her head, fluttered, whistled a sweet song for a few seconds then flew off into the night.

It was time to go indoors and start the rest of her life. Helen watched the bird go then turned and entered the house.

Theo Richmond,
Konin: A Quest
(Jonathan Cape, 1995)

Most of the following are Yiddish, German or Hebrew with a Liverpool accent, as I remember them from my childhood.

Fact and fiction are so interwoven in this book that it might help the reader to know what is historical and what is not.

Census details show that the population of the city of Liverpool fell from 791,000 in 1951 to 450,000 in 1991, a fall of 43 per cent. A further drop is expected at the next census in 2001. The main part of this decline came in the 1960s when 136,000 people left the city followed by a further 100,000 in the next decade. The only other location in the United Kingdom to show a similar fall is Belfast.

Amongst those who left were Dr Heenan, prelate of Liverpool, who was elevated to the See of Westminster and a cardinal's hat in September 1963. As his train left Lime Street Station 10,000 people lined the platform and sang ‘For He's a Jolly Good Fellow'. Harold Swindale Magnay left in 1964 for Paris where he became adviser to OECD on education. He died in 1971. Professor Dr Semple remained and lives in retirement in Gateacre.

In the early years of this century tuberculosis accounted for more than one death in three among men aged 15–44. Liverpool at 135 deaths per 100,000 population and Bootle at 161 (1931) were amongst the worst in the country. Lady Ida Titchfield (Duchess of Portland) was active in the National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis and its chairman from 1938. She lived to be 94 and was honoured with the DBE for her charitable work. The fears of dependency (Chapter Five) were expressed by NAPT after-care committees quoted in
Below the Magic Mountain
by Linda Bryder (Clarendon Press 1988). Dr Leadenthall is remembered by my mother. Special thanks are due to Professor John R. Ashton, Regional Director of Public Health, North West Regional Health Authority and Dr Sally Sheard of the Department of Public Health of Liverpool University.

Burtonwood USAF station was closed in 1965 but was reprieved in February 1967 after President de Gaulle took France out of NATO and ordered the removal of US troops from French soil. It was handed over to the RAF in 1992 and declared surplus to UK requirements the following year. Marks and Spencer's M62 store is now situated over the main runway; a commemorative plaque and flags decorate the stairs in the staff area. Warmest thanks to Aldon P. Ferguson of the Burtonwood Association, to Sheldon A. Goldberg of the Air Force History Support Office, Washington DC and to Mr A. Leigh, Curator of Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, and staff including Polly Arthurs for their tireless assistance.

The remarks of the ‘young ordinand' in Chapter Seventeen are based on quoted comments of Rabbi Z. Plitnick in the
Liverpool Jewish Gazette
of summer 1968.

The British Museum newspaper library at Colindale, Liverpool Public Libraries and the House of Commons Library staff also deserve my appreciation for their prompt and efficient efforts. Any errors are my own.

EC September 1997