Oh Gerry, if only. DB sisters (& mother) never liked or have felt close to me. The eldest sister (K) is the one who wrote me to say DB will be better when I'm dead - you offered up the moon pie. I still love that.

G the next sister (older than DB by 3 yrs) I tried hard to get along with her, but their culture always got in the way, the fixation with the mother being the conduit for all communication & how all life revolved around her. I always held back at home before going out with them, I would walk to the club 2 or 3 hrs later on my own. My back was my excuse, the reality was I just didn't have anything in common with them other than DB & sitting drinking in the club fawning over the old girl did nothing for me. (She passed away in 1998)

In 2008, we had to go to back the UK for my court case, I was very unwell. I didn't go out on the Saturday night, but got a call at 11pm, it was G - sounded drunk, said T had been bashed at the club. It was February (winter) freezing, I got dressed & walked down to the club (about a mile) went in DB with dad, no sign of T but they knew he'd been hit. I said I'd go check on him and G, walked there, another 1/2 mile, by now it's after 12. As I arrived I heard this blood curdling scream from round the corner. I recognised the girls scream, walked round and sure enough it was their eldest daughter, DB niece being beaten by her current partner. I grabbed her, somehow held him off and frog marched her home, she hanging off my waist & legs sobbing, nose spread across her face, him trying to pull her back. Somehow I got her to the door and shoved her inside, barred his entry & told him to go home, sober up & we'd talk the next day. I cleaned her & her father up & I walked back home, got in about 3am. Dad, DB and others were up, told them what had happened & we could all get a few hours sleep & go in the morning.

So 7am we're all down at G house, the phone ringing incessantly it being this boy Avron. Somehow it became me who was answering the phone, it was me that rang the police and it was me that had to go outside to confront the boy & tell him police were on their way & I suggest he leave us all alone. His words to me were, "why do you care, they all hate you, they can't stand you" I said, well I'm married to DB so they are stuck with me , she is my niece & your behaviour intolerable, please leave. He threatened to hit me, he was in his car, I have a vivid memory of me doing the chicken dance in the middle of the road and singing the song. I'm not a tall person, in those days I was 163 cm (now 159) I weighed then 56kg (123lb) All this while I was so unwell, DB is upstairs in the house with his sister G, she's saying to him, I'm having a bad day & everyone accepting it as if it's normal. Dad & T tending to the daughter/grand daughter. Looking back now with what I know, G alcolholism had her firmly in its grasp.

Do you know what, not once, not a single time has anyone in the family ever thanked me for what I did that night & the next day. None have said it was brave, good on you for helping us all, nothing, nada. Yet I know if I hadn't intervened that night he could well have killed her, certainly he tried again the following week after we left fracturing her eye socket, jaw and rebroke the nose. He was sentenced for quite some years. I've never enquired if he's out since.

I guess my point is we're not close at all, we are linked forever by DB and Our marriage. I know they don't like me, I know they didn't like me, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the way they all behave around me & treat me as if I don't even exist. So I don't actually know why she rings me, or turns to me for help. I've been told in no uncertain terms by the older sister and others that they along with G & T don't like me and G has only ever made an effort to be civil to me because I'm married to DB.

So there you go, yet another sad story tied to alcohol and violence in the family I've shared. It's sad but laughable, I'm not a violent person but I will stand up for myself. I never saw violence within my own family, never really knew much about domestic violence until marrying DB. I guess it's fair to say I lived a sheltered life. I've always said it was my association with horses and the hard work required to care for them that gave me inner strength. I sure had iron strength that night I got her off of the street.