Cultureshock

You need Adobe Flash installed to watch this movie.
Get Adobe Flash

Video transcript

I have five parents...

You may ask what is special about this photo.  Well it's me, my brother Billy and my two sisters Carol and Jane.  We all look happy on here and we were.  Not only is this a photo of the first time we all went out drinking together but I have realised that this is the only photo ever taken of all four of us together.

Billy left home to live with his wife when I was 4.  I hated this because I'd always shared a room in our 3 bedroom semi-detached with my sisters..Of course to give them their privacy as teenagers, my parents decided I could have the small room on my own.  I still remember hearing them giggling through the wall and shouting "you two stop havin fun without me!"

The night Carol told me she was moving out to live with her boyfriend, my plan of action was to write a letter using the giant pencil I had bought from Blackpool.  I told her I would be good and that I didn't want her to leave.  I'm not sure how much of the scribbling she understood but she cried reading that letter.

And then there were two.  My sister Jane now had the big room all to herself, so I couldn't understand why she would want to move to Greece.  At the age of 11 I found myself home alone with my parents and by the time my brother, his wife and my nephew emigrated to New Zealand, somewhere inside I thought it was me....that they didn't want to be around me.

My family had built their own lives.

I look at these photos of the three of them together and the bond they share.  The memories of growing up together.  I've always know I am part of all three of them.  I can see it in our eyes, smiles and characters.

My friend stole some cigarettes off her gran and we smoked them on the field beside my house.  We got caught...by the time I got home everyone knew.  I had to explain myself five times....once to each parent.  They all smoked, but that was ok they weren't 9 years old I was informed.  The same five authoritive figures also rejoiced with me at the discovery of my first underarm hair.

It wasn't until I saw this photo of the four of us that I realised that I am no longer just a part of them.  At the age of 25 I became one of them.

We have lived and continue to live chunks of our lives apart, but we are always part of each other thanks to two very special people....My Parents.