At the age of four, because of the Easter bombings in May 1941, we
were bombed out of our beautiful home and evacuated to a farm thirty
miles north of Belfast, Northern Ireland. A year or so later, we returned
and lived in a very deprived area in the city. My father, an old soldier,
was an alcoholic who smoked in the region of a thousand cigarettes a
week, so, the cupboards were bare and family life broke down. My
mother had little or no money for food, or even necessary items. I
became something of a problem child and was convicted of theft for
stealing food. They put me in the care of an extremely tough children's
home until the age of sixteen. Because of the problems in my early
life, I never did smoke or drink and at the age of twenty-six, married
my wife and we subsequently went into fostering and did it for many
years along with our six children. We finally retired over forty-five
years later. My experiences gave me a lot of insight and I felt that I
had a story that needed to be told, that's why I wrote my book; 'So you
think you want to Foster.'
