Come Back Peter — William Forde

Ronnie is the younger of two children, neither of whom ever knew their father. Her brother Peter is six years older than she is. Both children live with mum who is a drunken, lustful, emotional wreck; a woman who is guilt ridden by her past and unable to sustain healthy relationships with the opposite sex or her children. Mum provides Ronnie and Peter with a succession of stepfather figures; using the men in her life as a meal ticket and passport to a good time until she tires of them and moves on to the next man. At a at the age of 10 years, the only father figure Ronnie has ever grown close to walks out on the family. A few days later brother Peter leaves home also. Ronnie is left isolated, tending to the needs of a mother with whom she cannot relate and for who she feels no love. After Peter deserts the household, mum forbids any mention of his name ever again. To cope with the loss of her brother, Ronnie buries him in the recess of her mind. The story opens with Ronnie happily married to Pete. One day she opens the door to find her brother Peter, whom she has not seen for over twenty-five years standing there! All characters within the story are factual although the story itself is largely fictitious. As a Probation 0fficer and previous Divorce Court Welfare Officer for twenty-five years, I have been able to draw upon my own knowledge and insider experience of the British court system. On a more personal level, as a divorcee and access parent for many years, I possess the emotional insight to the anguish felt by frustrated access parents. On one level, this is the story of a woman's search for a meaningful identity to her roles as individual, partner, child and parent. It is also an indictment against the adversarial legal system and domestic court process, which frequently robs mothers and fathers of any parental dignity whilst denying the ‘paramount interest of the child' concerned and often depriving both parents of achieving better avenues to a more humane outcome. The story is set in West Yorkshire between the 1960s and the 1980s. William Forde: November 2015