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Clara was a bright, popular 14-year-old when she was abruptly forced to abandon school and friends to provide 24/7 care for her terminally ill mother, and younger brother. With no family support her life turned to despair with little or no respite watching her mother slowly die a few months after her 18th birthday. Her brother had finished school and joined the navy quickly forgetting the love and care afforded by Clara. With no State provision to help her regain her lost years, and no money, she was a slave of misfortune eking out a basic living at the lowest pay levels, long hours of toil, needing to provide sexual favour to survive at the bottom of the social ladder. James is 4-years her junior, knew her at school, and she babysat him prior to becoming a carer. His background is comfortable upper middle class with both parents consumed in their respective professional careers with no time for more children or parenting. They think he is taking a gap year before university, but he has other plans having built a computer graphics engine generating significant revenues in the computer gaming sector. He bumps into Clara, realises her situation, encouraging her to move to London with him as his mistress/housekeeper whilst he builds his business. He naively thinks himself as her salvation, but it takes a tragic life-threatening event to wake up to reality. This is her story. This book is intended as a social fable discussing two completely different aspects of society - the haves, and the have nots. Clara has nothing and no-one to help her. James has everything he needs, has never needed to care for anyone always having people around him to care for him. His parents, both successful upper-middle class executives want for nothing in a superficial world. The mother, a PhD biochemist and Director of a major pharmaceutical company, had to concentrate on a career as a female craving success. The father is a successful banker but not vying to get to the top. He is the seemingly more lay-back member of the family, but the strength and calm when needed as a single event in the life of Clara brings reality crashing down upon them causing them all to engage in a journey that will transform their lives.
I met 'Clara' on a train to Cardiff where, having fought hard to get her voice heard with no formal qualifications, she was finally to be interviewed at a college to study fashion. I was so moved with the despair she had suffered during those 3-years as a carer of her mother with no State support regarding her education and ambitions during or after her mother finally succumbed to her illness. She had sacrificed formative years to care for her mother, and then forgotten; left to fend for herself at the bottom of the social ladder. The reflections expressed in this book of those 3-years are her story. I would hope that this book makes the plight of these children carers more visible as there are many of them.
