‘I know your circumstances and realise how difficult this may be. Is it possible for you to get work which could be done in the home?’
‘I’ve been thinking about taking lodgers,’ Mrs Kelling had said slowly. ‘We’ve a decent sized house down Daisy Street with three good bedrooms. We could let two of them and Kathy, Billy and meself could share the third. I’m good wi’ me needle but piecework is so poorly paid I’d rather try letting rooms first.’
When this conversation had been repeated to Kathy, she had agreed eagerly that a couple of lodgers would be a good deal better than seeing her mother toiling over piecework from the local garment factory, or addressing endless envelopes or taking in washing. Besides, none of those things paid well at all, and she guessed that if they went down that path she would have to give up her place at the high school. Despite her busy home life, she was nearly always top of her class and her teachers were predicting a bright future, maybe even a university place. She knew her mother would work her fingers to the bone rather than see Kathy take a third rate job in a shop or office and thought that losing the privacy of their home would be a small price to pay to avoid that.
‘Fortunately, your father’s little pension pays the rent each week, so if we can get a couple of nice lady lodgers who are in steady work, then we should all manage very nicely,’ Mrs Kelling told her daughter. ‘I’ll be at home all day, looking after Billy, so there’ll be no question of you having to make lodgers’ meals, though I’ll appreciate your help in keeping the rooms clean and the washing and so on done. If you agree, you can write out a notice in your best handwriting, and copy it out twice. We’ll take one copy down to the Echo office and purrit in the paper. It’ll cost a bob or two, but I reckon we’ll get a better class of lodger that way. The other copy can go into Mr Snelling’s shop on Stanley Road – it’s right near the hospital and the nurses pop in and out all the time. A nurse for a lodger would be ideal because, though you and I are to go up to the hospital so that they can teach us what to do when Billy’s took bad, a nurse would kind of know instinctively, wouldn’t you think?’
Kathy was secretly doubtful. There were so many nurses and they worked on so many different wards. She also knew from talking to the staff on Billy’s ward that nurses were not well paid and wondered if they could afford the sort of price her mother would have to charge for a room. Shift work would also mean that they would expect to have meals provided at odd hours, or so she imagined; far from being ideal lodgers, therefore, nurses might be very difficult.
She said as much to Jane when the two girls met next day. Kathy flourished the two cards which she had written out in her very best Gothic script, and explained how she and her mother meant to cope. Jane admired the notices and agreed to accompany Kathy both to the Snelling’s shop and to the Echo office on Victoria Street, though she was doubtful that the Kellings would get a woman as a lodger. ‘There’s plenty of folk on the flower streets as has lodgers, and they’s all men,’ she told her friend. ‘Railway workers mostly, but there’s one or two dockers, I believe – or fellers who work in the dockyards,’ she amended. ‘There ain’t much work for women round here. Still, you might be lucky.’
The advertisement and the postcard in Snelling’s window did not elicit an immediate response but since Sarah Kelling knew her daughter was the best person – next to herself – to look after Billy, she had no worries about him whilst the school holidays lasted.
As she cleaned around the kitchen and prepared their evening meal, she kept a casual eye on Billy, who was sitting on the hearthrug in a patch of sunshine, carefully building a tower with the blocks that Jack had made for Kathy when she was small. Billy was
‘I’ve been thinking about taking lodgers,’ Mrs Kelling had said slowly. ‘We’ve a decent sized house down Daisy Street with three good bedrooms. We could let two of them and Kathy, Billy and meself could share the third. I’m good wi’ me needle but piecework is so poorly paid I’d rather try letting rooms first.’
When this conversation had been repeated to Kathy, she had agreed eagerly that a couple of lodgers would be a good deal better than seeing her mother toiling over piecework from the local garment factory, or addressing endless envelopes or taking in washing. Besides, none of those things paid well at all, and she guessed that if they went down that path she would have to give up her place at the high school. Despite her busy home life, she was nearly always top of her class and her teachers were predicting a bright future, maybe even a university place. She knew her mother would work her fingers to the bone rather than see Kathy take a third rate job in a shop or office and thought that losing the privacy of their home would be a small price to pay to avoid that.
‘Fortunately, your father’s little pension pays the rent each week, so if we can get a couple of nice lady lodgers who are in steady work, then we should all manage very nicely,’ Mrs Kelling told her daughter. ‘I’ll be at home all day, looking after Billy, so there’ll be no question of you having to make lodgers’ meals, though I’ll appreciate your help in keeping the rooms clean and the washing and so on done. If you agree, you can write out a notice in your best handwriting, and copy it out twice. We’ll take one copy down to the Echo office and purrit in the paper. It’ll cost a bob or two, but I reckon we’ll get a better class of lodger that way. The other copy can go into Mr Snelling’s shop on Stanley Road – it’s right near the hospital and the nurses pop in and out all the time. A nurse for a lodger would be ideal because, though you and I are to go up to the hospital so that they can teach us what to do when Billy’s took bad, a nurse would kind of know instinctively, wouldn’t you think?’
Kathy was secretly doubtful. There were so many nurses and they worked on so many different wards. She also knew from talking to the staff on Billy’s ward that nurses were not well paid and wondered if they could afford the sort of price her mother would have to charge for a room. Shift work would also mean that they would expect to have meals provided at odd hours, or so she imagined; far from being ideal lodgers, therefore, nurses might be very difficult.
She said as much to Jane when the two girls met next day. Kathy flourished the two cards which she had written out in her very best Gothic script, and explained how she and her mother meant to cope. Jane admired the notices and agreed to accompany Kathy both to the Snelling’s shop and to the Echo office on Victoria Street, though she was doubtful that the Kellings would get a woman as a lodger. ‘There’s plenty of folk on the flower streets as has lodgers, and they’s all men,’ she told her friend. ‘Railway workers mostly, but there’s one or two dockers, I believe – or fellers who work in the dockyards,’ she amended. ‘There ain’t much work for women round here. Still, you might be lucky.’
The advertisement and the postcard in Snelling’s window did not elicit an immediate response but since Sarah Kelling knew her daughter was the best person – next to herself – to look after Billy, she had no worries about him whilst the school holidays lasted.
As she cleaned around the kitchen and prepared their evening meal, she kept a casual eye on Billy, who was sitting on the hearthrug in a patch of sunshine, carefully building a tower with the blocks that Jack had made for Kathy when she was small. Billy was
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