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My name is Judith Patricia Harding. My mother named me such because at the time she was pregnant with me, Patricia was the name of her landlady and Judith was the name of the folk singer she was interested in. I suppose I should be glad her taste in lodgings as well as music were so benign.
I was born in London, England in 1970, where I lived until I was two. Then my mother took me home to her parents in Barbados for them to raise while she went back to work in England. My childhood was fun. Even looking back on it now with thirty plus years of experience, I don't think I would have wanted things to be different.
My grandparents had what today would be called a hobby farm, but to them it was a way of supplementing both the larder and the pocketbook. I grew up surrounded by animals and the outdoors. I lived right next to a bay. The shush shush sound of waves hitting the shore is one of the many things I miss about living where I am now. For eight years that was my life and then I moved to Canada when I was ten.
It was the middle of February 1980 when I arrived and there was three feet of snow on the ground. Imagine my astonishment as I'd never seen or heard of snow before. Frozen water from the sky. Mind boggling really.
So now I've been in Canada twenty five years this February. Weird. Even though I have citizenship, I still don't consider it home. I've always been grateful that my mother chose not to keep me with her. I kinda like the person I have become as a result of that. But sometimes I do wonder what I would have been like if a) she had kept me in England and b) if I'd stayed in Barbados. There's a sci fi theory that says for every major decision of your life, there are parallel dimensions where all the other possible choices are played out.
Since unlike Red Dwarf's Ace Rimmer I can't meet these other mes, I can only hope they're happy.
I was born in London, England in 1970, where I lived until I was two. Then my mother took me home to her parents in Barbados for them to raise while she went back to work in England. My childhood was fun. Even looking back on it now with thirty plus years of experience, I don't think I would have wanted things to be different.
My grandparents had what today would be called a hobby farm, but to them it was a way of supplementing both the larder and the pocketbook. I grew up surrounded by animals and the outdoors. I lived right next to a bay. The shush shush sound of waves hitting the shore is one of the many things I miss about living where I am now. For eight years that was my life and then I moved to Canada when I was ten.
It was the middle of February 1980 when I arrived and there was three feet of snow on the ground. Imagine my astonishment as I'd never seen or heard of snow before. Frozen water from the sky. Mind boggling really.
So now I've been in Canada twenty five years this February. Weird. Even though I have citizenship, I still don't consider it home. I've always been grateful that my mother chose not to keep me with her. I kinda like the person I have become as a result of that. But sometimes I do wonder what I would have been like if a) she had kept me in England and b) if I'd stayed in Barbados. There's a sci fi theory that says for every major decision of your life, there are parallel dimensions where all the other possible choices are played out.
Since unlike Red Dwarf's Ace Rimmer I can't meet these other mes, I can only hope they're happy.
