03.16.08
Family life in the UK
My grandparents on both sides were pretty working class by any estimation. My maternal grandparents, particularly were no strangers to poverty having both come from North East England mining families. Indeed my grandmother was part of a single family as her father died in a mining accident when she was just 5 years old. It is interesting to me that I now find myself feeling quite so middle classed. Ok so I was brought up in a stable family environment, and have been married to the same man for almost 24 years. I am also a professional person (well in my eyes), since I am a nurse and have 2 degrees. The lives of others sometimes show how different things could have been.
More than 3 weeks ago a 9 year old girl, Shannon Matthews, disappeared on her way from school following a swimming lesson. She was from an estate in an area that is perhaps more deprived than average and she came from a large extended family. It is not for me to judge the morals of a woman with 7 children by 6 partners, it is not relevant that her current partner is only 22 while she is 32. However it does mean that pretty much everyone in the area appears to be in some way connected with the family. There were rumblings this week that the case was not being given the same attention as that of Madeleine McCann who disappeared last year in Portugal. The insinuation being that Shannon is not from an articulate, middle classed, professional family, which is true, though at the same time Madeleine was also only 3 and you would imagine not used to wandering the streets at home let alone Portugal alone. Both mothers though have also in some way been blamed for their daughters disappearance, Madeleine’s after all has been accused in some quarters of actually murdering her daughter.
Thankfully Shannon has now been found. However her discovery is pretty much as strange as her disappearance. She was found in the drawer of a divan bed in the flat of her mother’s current partner’s relative. He is a man who has had more than one name and I guess must have been known to Shannon. During her disappearance there were reports that Shannon was unhappy at home, and that she had told friends she did not want to go home. There are obviously wider issues here. But what is certain is that someone somewhere needs to make a better job of safeguarding this young girl than has happened to date.
Viqui said,
March 16, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Well said.I had been thinking along much the same lines.
Suzanne Langley said,
March 17, 2008 at 5:08 am
I have visited this site on many an occasion now but this post is the 1st one that I have ever commented on.
Congratulations on such a fine article and site I have found it very helpful and informative - I only wish that there were more out there like this one.
I never leave empty handed, sometimes I may even be a little disappointed that I may not agree with a post or reply that has been made. But hey! that is life and if every one agreed on the same thing what a boring old world we would live in.
Keep up the good work and cheers.
Julie said,
March 17, 2008 at 7:52 am
Thank you both for your comments.
Suzanne, the beauty of the blogsphere is that there is such a wealth of information and that people write their stories from their own point of view. I often visit other sites and may disagree with what is said, and often it makes me return. Thanks for the very kind comments.
A sad resolution? « Life in the NHS said,
April 9, 2008 at 10:39 pm
[...] in Family, News and Current Affairs (general), motherhood at 10:39 pm by Julie A few weeks ago I wrote about the disappearance and subsequent discovery of 9 Year old Shannon Matthews. The little girl [...]