And so we have a teenager. An awkward teenager, a cuckoo in our nest.
Laura had braces fitted to her teeth, we were told this would happen when she was two years old, teeth were missing they would never grow. Was something lacking in her genes? We travelled back and forth to the city. A city she now lives. I prefer she lives there, I prefer not to be afraid of seeing her down my street, see her face, see that she has been drinking again.
As a child, Laura played the piano, went to girl guides. At the age of eight she was awarded swimming badges: bronze, silver, and gold. She was fearless of water, sea or pool, she never considered what lurked underneath.
We moved to a bigger house, brand-new and still partly on a building site. With her sister Laura would dig for treasure in the excavation piles of earth. From her finds, she collected empty antique bottles. We did not know that empty bottles would come a plenty.
Laura’s early teens were spent in our company. As a family we continued to do the things we loved. Was she a moody teenager? No more or less than any other. She liked a joke and bought an attachment for a car’s exhaust. She popped it in her uncles’ new car. He drove off to a tremendous fanfare, stopped the car and cursed the need to go to the garage.
Laura amused us all with her take on life. We did not know of the heartache to come.
