Cathy Glass - Where Has Mummy Gone? - Part 1 of 3 - A young girl and a mother who no longer knows her

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Acknowledgements Chapter One: Familiar? Chapter Two: Safe and Happy Chapter Three: Mummy Needs Me Chapter Four: School Chapter Five: Amanda Chapter Six: The Way Home? Chapter Seven: Lost Chapter Eight: Difficult Chapter Nine: When Can I See Mummy? Chapter Ten: Snow Angel Moving Memoirs eNewsletter About the Publisher

Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy.

HarperElement

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published by HarperElement 2018

FIRST EDITION

Text © Cathy Glass 2018

Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018

Cover photograph © Kristina Dominianni/Arcangel Images (posed by a model)

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at

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Source ISBN: 9780008305468

Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008305499

Version 2018-09-26

Cover

Title Page Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Acknowledgements Chapter One: Familiar? Chapter Two: Safe and Happy Chapter Three: Mummy Needs Me Chapter Four: School Chapter Five: Amanda Chapter Six: The Way Home? Chapter Seven: Lost Chapter Eight: Difficult Chapter Nine: When Can I See Mummy? Chapter Ten: Snow Angel Moving Memoirs eNewsletter About the Publisher

Copyright Copyright Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Acknowledgements Chapter One: Familiar? Chapter Two: Safe and Happy Chapter Three: Mummy Needs Me Chapter Four: School Chapter Five: Amanda Chapter Six: The Way Home? Chapter Seven: Lost Chapter Eight: Difficult Chapter Nine: When Can I See Mummy? Chapter Ten: Snow Angel Moving Memoirs eNewsletter About the Publisher Certain details in this story, including names, places and dates, have been changed to protect the family’s privacy. HarperElement An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published by HarperElement 2018 FIRST EDITION Text © Cathy Glass 2018 Cover layout design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2018 Cover photograph © Kristina Dominianni/Arcangel Images (posed by a model) A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Find out about HarperCollins and the environment at www.harpercollins.co.uk/green Source ISBN: 9780008305468 Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008305499 Version 2018-09-26

Acknowledgements Acknowledgements A big thank you to my family; my editors, Carolyn and Holly; my literary agent, Andrew; my UK publishers HarperCollins, and my overseas publishers, who are now too numerous to list by name. Last, but definitely not least, a big thank you to my readers for your unfailing support and kind words. They are much appreciated.

Chapter One: Familiar? Chapter One

Chapter Two: Safe and Happy

Chapter Three: Mummy Needs Me

Chapter Four: School

Chapter Five: Amanda

Chapter Six: The Way Home?

Chapter Seven: Lost

Chapter Eight: Difficult

Chapter Nine: When Can I See Mummy?

Chapter Ten: Snow Angel

Moving Memoirs eNewsletter

About the Publisher

A big thank you to my family; my editors, Carolyn and Holly; my literary agent, Andrew; my UK publishers HarperCollins, and my overseas publishers, who are now too numerous to list by name. Last, but definitely not least, a big thank you to my readers for your unfailing support and kind words. They are much appreciated.

Chapter One

I was sure I’d heard it all before …

The child I was being asked to foster had been badly neglected for years by her single mother, who was an intravenous drug user and alcohol dependent. The social services were going to court later that morning to bring the child into care. Melody was eight years of age and had been sleeping on an old stained mattress on the floor of a damp, cold basement flat with her mother, and they were about to be evicted. She hadn’t been attending school, and despite the social services putting in support, there was never any food in the cupboards and she and her mother were often hungry, cold and dirty.

‘She is also very angry,’ Jill, my supervising social worker from the agency I fostered for, continued over the phone. The referral from the social services had come through her.

‘The mother is angry?’ I asked.

‘Yes, and Melody – her child – is too. She tried to kick and thump the social worker when she visited yesterday and threw something at her when she began talking to her mother. The social worker will take a police officer with her when she removes Melody, assuming the care order is granted.’

‘Is there any doubt?’

‘There shouldn’t be, but you never can tell. It will depend on the judge. The case is in court shortly, so it’s likely to be early afternoon before they are with you.’

‘All right.’ Forcibly removing a child from their home wasn’t a good start, but if the parent wasn’t cooperating there was no alternative. The mother had been given plenty of opportunities to sort out her life and parent her daughter properly but had repeatedly failed.

‘Amanda, the mother, can’t control Melody,’ Jill said. ‘She’s failed to put in place any boundaries and Melody can easily become angry. One social worker described her as feral.’

One of the reasons I had been asked to foster Melody was because I had years of fostering experience, much of it working with children with challenging behaviour, and I knew why Melody was angry. Even though she had been living in appalling conditions and had not been looked after, she was being taken away from the mother she knew and loved.

‘She’s very loyal and protective of her mother,’ Jill continued, ‘and won’t hear any criticism of her. They both hate social workers. Melody does as she likes and is very much the one in control.’ Again, this wasn’t unusual for a child who’d had to raise herself.