The Birth. While living in that tied house Cliffs brother also moved into a house similar a bit further along the same street. His wife was as far as I know a nurse. They already had two children and she was due to have her third. Cliff had not been brought up with that brother because the cottage where his parents lived was a very small place with only two bedrooms. This meant that Cliff's elder sister and his middle brother went to live with his mother's parent's so the relationship between Cliff and his brother and sister was not quite what it should have been. He got on well with his younger brother because he was kept to live in the cottage with Cliff so they grew up together. During my years in that tied house I managed to break my ankle right when slipping during icy weather and about six months before this following incident happened I broke my right wrist that I was still getting twinges from and was about to be put to test. One Saturday morning my hubby who had been on the late shift the day before and I let him have a lie in for a change but I was up and ready for the day and my son had just had his breakfast when around 9am there was a continuous knocking on our front door. I went to see who it was and it was my brother-in-law's next door neighbour asking me to go to my s-i-l because she had started in labour. By this time Cliff had come down to see what was the matter. We asked where hubby's brother was and told he had gone to work.???????? Work was over 12 miles away which at that time with no cars had to be got to either on the bus or train or bike if you had one. It was all systems go then because I could NOT leave my s-i-l on her own with two children younger than my son. I wasn't relishing the idea because I had been in many predicaments in my life but never at a birth. When I got to my s-i-l she was upstairs on the bed and her neighbour was minding the children. Cliff had had a quick wash and from what I could gather he had told our next door neighbour what had happened so she said she would mind my lad who could play with her boys until it was all sorted. Cliff came to see if he could do anything and my s-i-l suggested if he would be kind enough to go looking for the midwife. Hubby asked her how the heck was he to know where she had gone. My s-i-l told him in which areas she would be and even knew where the others, who were having babies, lived. Cliff asked her why the hell had his brother gone to work IF he knew she was in labour. I could see the annoyance coming to the fore with Cliff because his face used to start matching the colour of his red hair. I was trying to usher him out of the room and asked him to take his brothers bike to go to the few addresses that had been given him to see if he could get the midwife here as soon as possible. It was a VERY close humid morning and already in the 70s. It was all systems go then because in between her pains she was telling me what I had to do next. It was by this time coming up to 12 oclock and one final push and the baby was born. I was relieved, frightened, elated and had SO many mixed emotions going through me as I wiped the baby's face and when asked what it was (meaning what sex) like a stupid idiot I said "A baby" I had not even noticed what sex it was but it was a little girl. The sex wasn't known then until born. I was just about to cut the umbelical chord under my s-i-ls instructions when the midwife dashed in so I left it to her. Just as I got downstairs Cliff staggered in because the temperature had hit the 90s and to make matters worse he had been pedalling on a bike that had a flat tyre. No wonder his brother had not taken it. He must have got the train. The sweat was running down his Cliffs face. Luckily he got the midwife before she finished her round and with her bike being OK she got here before Cliff. He was fuming and said that he would be waiting to see his brother to let him know what he thought of him. I made him come home but what he said as we got in our front door creased me up and I still titter about it to this day. Cliff was SO mad he said " He has had the sodding pleasure of making this child and its me who is knackered up trying to get help to see it safely in this world. Just wait till I see him." We finally managed to get settled after he had had an nice cold wash down with clean clothes on and we found out it was THE most hottest day that had been recorded for many years. I still have a giggle about it when remembering back and how vehement and indignant Cliff sounded when he came out with that remark. The child I delivered has been living in OZ now for quite a few years.
The line where you said - 'Its a baby', made me laugh thinking of Del Boy - he said the same thing when Rodney asked
Just shows how green I was Patsy. Its got to be remembered though that this was about 64/ 65 years ago and a different world entirely.