Mum’s the word

I was born to an unmarried mother, Nancy, in Sheffield in 1947. She worked as a housekeeper so could keep me with her but when I was two-and-a-half it was too much and her eldest sister adopted me and I went to live in Scotland. As an adult of 55, I wrote to the local newspaper in Sheffield, asking if anyone knew me when I lived with my natural mother. Rita, her next-door neighbour, got in touch and told me what she knew. Rita and I have now been in touch for 14 years and talk on the phone every Saturday. I lost a mother but gained a lifelong friend.