Hi all,
RAL, happy you are continuing to enjoy your holiday! My Dad used to work in Preston. We lived for 2 years in Chorley. He had a major stroke aged only 40, (I was 2 and a half) and we went back to N.Ireland as he could no longer work and my mother needed help with 3 kids and 6 months pregnant with my sister. We moved to a house on the same street as my mother's mother. My mum was so depressed, she was an absent parent, always at her mum's. Basically she and my Dad never spoke much again, other than the basics, and the stroke left him with violent rages. Not a nice childhood. I was on edge and anxious all the time. My very first sip of alcohol, sherry, at age 10, seemed to transport me to a warm, soothing place, that I had never known. I suppose trauma must do a number on a child's developing brain. All my siblings too, became heavy drinkers.
Zura, well done on your sober time!