House on the Hill.

Chapter 16 My auntie Anne

My auntie Ann was a lovely person who thought a lot about me and who also would become my god-parent. For whatever reason, my dad never got on with her even as a child. But I did find out later from her that he used to hit and bully her.
When I was very little I always remember her in my life. I saw more of her when I moved to Derwent Road from Lee Street. She lived on Mount Pleasant Road which wasn't very far from our house. Auntie Ann's Husband Tony was, of course, my uncle and he was sound. He always treated me well and used to buy me sweets from the corner shop. Their children Jean and Robert were my cousins and they were equally sound. Auntie Ann's house was very clean, tidy and well-furnished and had statues of Our Lady all over the house. She was very religious.
I used to stay there at the weekends and she always made me feel welcome. I used to get a lot invitations to her house to stay. I used to look forward to my Sundays as she always cooked lamb with potatoes, veg and gravy topped with mint sauce. This was a rarity in my household.
She used to take me shopping every other weekend for clothes.
Auntie Ann is the only family member I confided in about the abuse from my father. I told her everything and I cried many a time in her arms. She confronted my dad many times
about it and suffered at his hands on the odd occasion and was banned for a while from coming to my house as my dad didn't like taking a few home truths.
After my Uncle Tony passed away, she got depressed and started to become dependent on prescription drugs.
She would take any form of tablet for her drug addiction from pain killers to sleeping tablets. She became such an addict that her doctor stopped giving her prescriptions. She had been going to the doctor's surgery every other day.
Many times, she would go to my mum's and beg for tablets. I Remember once my mum gave her water tablets and said they was pain killers. My auntie Ann was back the following day asking for more. She told my mum they worked wonders for her headaches. but she couldn't stop going to the toilet during the day. That must have brought a smile to my mum's face.
I felt so sorry as each day passed by her habit was getting worse. In the end my mum saw this and stopped giving her tablets and tried to help her kick the habit but she couldn't. My mum even made her appointments to see the doctor to try and get some help, but she made excuses and deliberately missed her appointments. She tried to persuade me but I couldn't do it. I loved her so much. In her desperation, she went and saw my dad and it wasn't long after that my dad banned her from coming to our house.
I remember the day well. It was after we had had our tea. I heard a knock on the front door and mum told me to go and answer it.
It was my auntie Ann. She said, "Hi Ian, I have a small treat for you." She gave me a small bar of chocolate bar which was quite usual. Even when I visited her house and stayed over she used to have a tin full of them specially for me. Anyway, she said the usual hello to the family and headed into the front room where my dad was. My mum was very concerned as my dad had had a massive argument with her over me and the beatings. I didn't know straight away but my dad used to take advantage of her and sell her tablets to feed her addiction. My dad used to get extra prescriptions so that he could sell her tablets for money to feed his own addictions. Drinking and gambling. It was a frequent arrangement they had, between them. I actually saw my dad giving her tablets. He used to put them in a brown envelope and she would just pass over money to my dad. This ended abruptly, as the doctor stopped giving my father prescriptions as he was giving the doctor all kinds of excuses to get tablets. The doctor ended it and only gave him prescriptions when he was due for a repeat. So, my auntie Ann's tablet supply came to came to an end and she had to find other ways of getting them.
I saw her coming up Derwent Road once after she been to my house, apparently, my dad had kicked her out of the house as she had no more use to him anymore. She was crying and in a bad state and told me that my dad had slapped her and banned her from the house. I was very upset and she knew it would be the very last time she ever set foot in my father's house again.
She was my god-parent and paid for all my clothes for my first communion day at Our Lady of Lourdes and was even there to support me but sadly she was at the back of the church. My father disowned her and wouldn't speak to her.
I still visited her at her house but this would be on the odd occasion as I went my own way and did different things. She sadly died several years later after I had moved away from home. It wasn't the tablets that killed her but old age. She was a lovely person and very caring, my auntie Anne. She stood up for me against my father but she struggled in life after my uncle Tony died which made her very depressed and it was that that caused her addiction to prescription drugs.
My dad treated her very badly for his own reasons instead of helping her when she needed it the most. This was something I would remind him about in my older years. He turned his back on her when she needed him the most.
R.I.P Auntie Anne. You will always be sadly missed and always in my thoughts.