Nuneaton Escape Bookshelf: Maxine's Shelf

Book 1: Born in Whitestone, Nuneaton. One younger sister. Two lovely parents who loved photography, although it wasn’t their full-=me job, they had a baby portrait business as a side hustle.

Zodiac Sign – Cancer the Crab

Chinese Zodiac – Wood Snake

Book 3 - Nanny the Donkey: Each Friday night my mum and dad, nan and grandad would turn up at the school gates, with

two cars and a caravan on the back of each. They would meet us from school and we would travel in convoy to the caravan site / caravan rally we were going on / to that weekend. I was known as the traveller child! I didn’t realise then how lucky I was, I thought everyone went away every weekend in the caravan. This is where my love of the countryside came from. Early morning walks with my grandad and later in the day walks with my parents and grandparents. On one occasion, we arrived on a small farm site, it was dark and pouring with rain. To keep us warm and dry, we were told to sit in the car while the caravans were pitched. Nan and grandad’s van was ready first, so we were sent to sit in their liRle touring van. I had panicked when we arrived as in the dark, I could see dark shadows roaming the field. Nan told me not to be scared, it was only a couple of donkeys. Sitting in the caravan with the rain lashing down, in the dark, I saw the dark shape right by the caravan window. I shouted, Nanny, ‘It’s the donkey, help!’ Oops, my nan stood up in her brown pakamac (a 70’s rainmac), and said, “It isn’t the donkey, it’s me connecting the water up!” I never lived that down, even on my wedding day it formed part of my Dad’s speech.

Book 4 - Photos: Early photos of my childhood and my start of my photography journey. (black and whites and the caravan) with my Mum and Dad and my first =me handling a camera, with supervision of course! I was three years old. I fell in love with photography, right then. I was allowed into their darkroom to watch the images appear out of nowhere. Plus, photos of me with Mum and Dad under the parasol.

Book 5 & 6 - Education.

Book 5 – School: I didn’t like school much as I was always bullied. I loved my art, woodwork, metalwork, pottery and technical drawing classes though and I had a couple of close friends, two sets of twins, who I am s=ll in contact with today. I was always told I was the ‘arty child’, my sister was the seen to be the more academic as she liked maths. As such, I believed I wasn’t very clever.

Book 6 – Further Education: Hairdressing and Beauty (I wanted to do Photography, but didn’t think I could make a living out of it. What I discovered though was, when I was interested in the subject, the theory was a lot easier, and I did well in the theory too. I surprised myself!

Book 7 – Tragedy: I discovered that life could be cruel. In the space of two years, my 42 year old uncle died of a

massive heart attack in his sleep. The police came to tell us when we were in the caravan, in the middle of a caravan rally in Snitterfield. I will never forget it. It was the same weekend that Elvis died. Two years later, my cousin, my uncle’s only daughter died at the age of seventeen. Although she had moderate learning difficultes, it was still a massive shock. We also found out my aunt, was dying with cancer. She died six months later. A whole family wiped out. My aunt was my dad’s only sibling. My poor Dad and Nan and Grandad. I witnessed and felt a deep, awful grief and deep loss.

Book 8 – Marriage: While my aunt (above) was in the hospice, my boyfriend proposed to me. I remember telling her. I was only 19. I asked her if she thought I was too young, she said, do you love him? I said, with all of my heart. Her answer was, then there is no decision to make. We married when I was 20 (I had met him when I was 14).

Book 9 – My Son: Born after 10 years of marriage, I was the happiest, I had ever been in my life! Although he has Aspergers, he is extremely clever, holds down a full time job and lives with his partner, he has one daughter and one step daughter. He has a really good work ethic. I was a single mum from when my children were 12 and 10. They saw me work hard so I am proud that, I instilled a good work ethic in them both.

Book 10 - My Daughter: Born two years after my son I was so happy, I had a son and now I had a daughter, she also has a learning difficulty but is the most amazing artist. She lives with her partner now. She’s a little entrepreneur, she will always find a way to keep earning money, she works part time, and also does car boot sales and art commissions. Another hard worker!

Book 11 – University: I was encouraged by a work college to sign up for a degree with Warwick University. I had imposter syndrome again, was I academic enough, would I manage it with work and two young children. I loved Uni, it was a struggle but the coursework was enjoyable, I learnt a lot about myself and I made some amazing friends. Sadly, a year before I would go on to graduate, another tragedy struck.

Book 12 – Losing Dad: My mum and Dad went on a holiday to Cyprus. Two days before the end of the holiday, my Dad had a massive brain haemorrhage, was in a coma, Mum was alone, so my sister and I flew out there to be with her and to visit my Dad. Sadly, he never came round from the coma and died a few days aher we arrived in Cyprus, we got to see him just once for 2 mins each. He was in hospital in Cyprus, the medical care was good, but unlike here in the UK families don’t get to see their family when they were in critical care. We were very privileged to be allowed those two minutes. We were getting the taxi back to Pathos and when we arrived back at the hotel, there was a message to say Dad had died. He was my soulmate. I have never recovered from this loss.

Book 13 – Life continued to fall apart: My husband and I split up and I became a single Mum. Our children were 12 and 10. I thought I would never get through these hard times, but I learnt a lot about myself again. I was stronger than I thought was possible.

Book 14 – Teacher Training – Education – Starting to Rebuild My life: I went back to college to give myself something positive to focus on for myself. Mum helped me out with the children, she was amazing. I passed this course too and started teaching, essential skills to adults. I learnt to write and deliver training sessions. I really loved the work, it helped me in my career too.

Book 15 – A new Home – a new start: The children and I gave up the family home as it was too much to manage, we moved nearer to mum and my sister as they helped with the children while I worked, plus I needed a cheaper house. Although scary at times, again, I developed more resilience.

Book 16 – Holiday with Mum and the Children: Mum and I started taking the children away on the £9 ‘Sun’ Holidays. We had some great times and started to build new happy memories as a family.

Book 17 – Growth as a Single Parent: I developed my skills and confidence as a single parent. I found it hard at times but I learnt to fix things around the home, I became multi skilled, everything from chauffer, gardener, nurse, mechanic, Odd job person!

Book 18 and 19 – White and Yellow: Attempted new relationships and gave up, the kids, then work became my life. For relaxation I went back to my art and photography.

Book 20 – Community: I felt connected to my local community, made new friends and really enjoyed my job. I started to think about having my own business alongside work.

Book 22 – Family History: I started tracing my family history, another way to connect with family I had lost. I really love researching, I still carry on the work today. I love it. I feel so close to my relatives and recall lots of happy times.

Book 25 - Artists: During the pandemic, I couldn’t get out to do my photography, so I taught myself watercolour

painting from, You Tube. I adore watercolour painting. I am trying to develop more time for creativity.

Book 26 and Book 27: My growth as an artist and photographer and my future – Watch this space!

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