Wonder WOMEN
At 85 and suffering from Alzheimer’s, greatgrandmother Joan Porter has become a children’s author – to the delight of her family
Whenever Joan Porter’s eight greatgrandchildren visit, they know they’re guaranteed to get a riveting good story from her. After decades of entertaining their parents, grandparents and youngsters in her care, the former children’s nurse is a skilled narrator. Off the top of her head, Joan can reel off tale after tale about the antics of countryside animals like Little Terry Tiddlemouse. The problem is that these days, Alzheimer’s has left her struggling with her shortterm memory and she can’t remember them long enough to write them down. “It’s no problem making the stories up but I’ve hardly waved the children off and I’ve forgotten them,” admits Joan, who lives in sheltered accommodation in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. But thanks to her family, some of her popular tales at least have been preserved in print for future generations after they impressed a book publisher last year. The story of how widowed Joan became a children’s author at 85 started in Spring last year when her daughter Arlene Harrison (41), was
searching through her mum’s drawers for something she wanted. Stumbling across a tattered brown envelope, she found dozens of pages of stories Joan had scribbled down in the past. Childhood memories came flooding back as she recognised the characters from the amusing tales she’d been told before bedtime. “Mum’s stories were always very funny and she was extremely good at telling them. I can still remember going to bed and lying giggling under the duvet,” recalls Arlene, who is the youngest of Joan’s four daughters. Like her older sisters, Arlene grew up knowing that the characters were based on the creatures Joan had been surrounded by when she was young. Living in the remote rural village of Kilberry on Scotland’s West coast, Joan had spent hours watching local wildlife and began giving them names and writing stories about them. “She loves nature and won’t even kill a bee or a wasp if it comes in the house. She’ll just open a window to let it out,” says Arlene. When Joan became a children’s nurse, it was the days when parents couldn’t stay with their young children if they were in hospital. To comfort her young patients and get them off to sleep at night, Joan would retell her stories. After marrying her husband Bill, she was forced to leave her job because he was a serving police officer and wives weren’t expected to work. But soon she had a new audience for her stories in her own children. When Arlene was small, Joan formed a local playgroup and entertained the children there. At night, she would write the stories down so she could remember them herself when asked to repeat them. Despite encouragement from Bill, who died of bowel cancer in 2000, aged 70, she never sought to get her stories published. “I don’t think she thought they were good enough,” says Arlene, whose own three children have grown up listening to Nannie’s stories, as have all their cousins. But when she suggested to her mum last year that she sent them off to a few publishers, Joan let her do it despite a few reservations… “At first she said ‘Och, don’t be daft! Who’d be interested in my ramblings?’” recalls Arlene, who never expected the response she got from one publisher. Within two days Cathy Wilson from Ailsapress had got in touch expressing interest. By October, two of her books – Little Terry Tiddlemouse And His Countryside Friends, and Little Terry Tiddlemouse Time For Tea And Dressing Up had been published. A third is due out later this year. Cathy, who says the books are selling well for a first-time author, says: “As soon as I read just one of Joan’s verses, I was captivated! There’s a lovely lilt to them; they sing, and even though I’d not met her I could hear her voice. Plus there’s a lively humour and her obvious intimacy with the countryside. You know that she knows the little creatures she’s talking about. It’s a very special combination of a lot of different qualities.“A modest Joan, who plans to make a donation to Alzheimer’s Scotland and treat the family to a celebration party when she gets her first royalty cheque, says: “Growing up in the country 14 miles from the nearest village, you had to make your own fun. I got to know all the animals and they were like friends. I suppose I’m glad somebody is reading about it.” Arlene adds: “Getting Mum’s stories published has never been about money. She just likes the thought of children reading them. It’s wonderful to think her grandchildren will be able to read them to their children, too.” Locally, Joan’s books have made her something of a celebrity as the children she told them to are grown up now and buying them for their children. She’s also been a guest at two of her greatgrandchildren’s schools to read the books. Her success has even earned her a new title from proud greatgrandson Jayden (5). “She’s now known as Supergran!” adds Arlene.
‘Mum’s stories were always very funny and she was extremely good at telling them. I can still remember going to bed and lying giggling under the duvet’ – Arlene, Joan’s youngest daughter