The survivors

I’ve had an emotional day writing about the most difficult period in my young life when my mother was overtaken by awful manic depression. The other themes that emerged were the resilience of childhood and the unfortunate passing of a much-loved young dog called Havoc. I ended up in tears. I can’t show you Havoc as there are no surviving photos of her, but I can show you something else. Here is part of what I wrote.
 
“Tony’s Subbuteo set had been sadly neglected and was somehow passed on to me. Many of the players were broken but I repainted the survivors and made them into a multi-racial team. (Pretty forward-thinking there.) They were supposed to be a South American team, one I called Running Club. By a sheer miracle, considering subsequent events, I still have the complete team in a Subbuteo box. I also created a colourful strip I have never yet seen replicated anywhere else. Running Club is possibly my most precious possession. The little pieces of plastic who survived everything.
    It might seem incongruous to be so enthused by a Subbuteo football team when your mum was succumbing to terrible mental illness, but I’m glad I had my pals and I felt no different to any of them. We were proto-adolescents and as I’ve said, life went on. It had to, or where would you be?”