'New Home - New Baby' by Louise McClean

We arrived home, after three years in Aden, by sea on the 8th March, 1967 and, on entering Southampton harbour, passed the old Queen Mary sailing out on her last voyage. It was also our daughter’s tenth birthday.
First we had to return to Scotland to sell our home before moving south to Shrewsbury where my husband was to work and we were all going to live. We had never been to Shropshire so it was all going to be very new to us.
The three children and I stayed in Ayr to sell the house and pack up while Vic went to Shrewsbury to begin his new job and find somewhere suitable for us to live. The fact that I was seven months pregnant wasn’t exactly a help but the sale went through very easily and by the end of May we had bought a suitable house in Shrewsbury and moved in. It was exactly a month to the day before the birth of the new baby.
I liked the new house but it was much smaller than the Ayr house and all our furniture was far too large so we had to climb over furniture just to get around
As the baby was due in June one of the first things I had to do was to get registered with a doctor. This wasn’t simple as the first three I tried weren’t taking any new patients but I wasn’t too worried as this as my fourth child and I was very relaxed about the whole thing. We did eventually find a lovely doctor so all was well.
We settled into our new home, became familiar with the town and the neighbourhood and started the children into local schools. I remember it was a gloriously hot June and I waddled around like a beached whale longing for the birth which would also bring a few days rest in hospital!
On Sunday 25th June I went into the old maternity unit at Copthorne Hospital and the next day our daughter, Kerry Charlotte, was born without any fuss. We were all thrilled with her and felt she was a good omen for our life in Shropshire.
When Kerry and I , suitably refreshed, came home five days later it was to a house over stuffed with furniture and now also containing six huge crates of our belongings which had arrived from Aden. My immediate reaction was to put a match to the lot as we hadn’t a spare inch of space as it was. It was months before those crates were opened - they lived in the garage till then; out of sight, out of mind.
My husband, in his wisdom, had arranged for an electrician to come on the following Monday to re-wire the entire house. So, there I was with the floor boards lifted all over the house, no electricity, three over excited children and a new baby who appeared to want to sleep all day and cry all night. Great!
I remember it was all very stressful and it crossed my mind that, had I had time, I could have had a nervous breakdown but I was too busy for that, so I just got on with it and did my best.
Over the summer we gradually began to feel at home as we made new friends and explored the gorgeous Shropshire countryside. By Christmas we were well settled in Shropshire and over forty years later, we are still here, so it was a good move if rather traumatic!