Tower and Town, May 2016 (view the full edition)Heroes At HomeAs you grow up you think of your parents as, well, your parents. They aren't people as such, just your parents and you love them unconditionally roughly until you get into double figures and then they are horrible nasty ogres who just want to spoil all your fun and stop you doing ANYTHING! And you really should not have to do all that homework when there is a really good programme on the TV and the games console just really needs to be warmed up. By mid teens, your bedroom door is a no go zone and the dinner table looks like the Somme unless there is an independent negotiator like a relative or neighbour, when you can be sweetness and light just to prove it's all their fault. Then when you reach late teens a sort of harmonious truce is introduced where you can both coexist in the same country without starting a small war then you leave for Uni or that magical "own place". Usually not to return. Later in life, when you are married and have offspring of your own, you start to realise what heroes your parents actually are. How they loved you, looked after you and did their best for you, even without an instruction manual. They managed to get you through school, looked after all the little disasters like when you fell off the climbing frame and broke your arm or fell off your first motorbike and ruined all your clothes. As you get older you see how they look after each other and how they still think of you first, even as they find it more difficult to get up the stairs or walk down the road to the shops. You then recognise the courage they have shown to get you to where you can survive successfully on your own and the bravery they showed facing up to you armed only with (some) reason and discussion when you were at that impossible age and all they really wanted to do was hit you with a cricket bat. Then you realise that they are heroes and that they should have got a medal for their efforts, but never will - just like yours won't, when your children have grown and flown the nest. Roy Smith |