My sister, Marilyn, has spent most of her adult life interacting with young people as either a mother to her two children, Ray and Laine, a carer to other peoples children or an agony aunt to the friends of her own children.

Ever since she had her first child, Ray, she has been just the most naturally gifted mother you could expect.  In what were sometimes very difficult circumstances, she never ceased to be a loving, caring and creative mother, providing a stimulating and safe environment in which her children could thrive.

Marilyn has been married to her husband, Dave, for well over 25 years at the time of writing.  For most of that time, Dave's work has seen him fulfilling long term contracts all over the world or elsewhere in the UK, other than their home town.  This meant that he would be away for anything up to 6 months at a time.  Therefore Marilyn has more or less brought up her children on her own, albeit with the support and presence of her husband from what was often a considerable distance.

At the time of writing, Ray is 26 and Laine 21 and they are just fabulous young people who achieved very good academic results, are rounded and creditable members of society and an absolute credit to Marilyn.

When Ray and Laine were young, Marilyn decided that if she was looking after them, she could just as easily look after other children as well.  So she embarked on becoming a child minder, looking after other peoples children whilst their parents were at work.  She needed to become qualified and endorsed by the local authority, which she duly did, and over the course of the next 15 years or so became an excellent and trusted child minder.

A couple of years ago she decided that she would rather like to help young people with particular behavioural or social issues and started to qualify as a specialist social worker.  After a not inconsiderable effort on her part she has now found her place, working for a local authority dealing with young people and adolescents with some pretty serious social issues and she loves every minute of it.  Not quite my cup of tea, but I know that she does this job very well and has a very acute sense of how to deal with these issues appropriately and the patience to see the job through, in what are sometimes very difficult and trying circumstances.

Both Ray and Laine qualified for bursaries (grants) to attend the private school which they happened to live next door to.  That achievement alone opened up such a lot of opportunities for them both and I know that their early lives to date have been shaped by their attendance at that school.

They both achieved good academic results and Ray went to University in Cheltenham, and graduated with a business based degree.

Laine showed a particular ability with languages but chose not to go to University.  In fact there is a little story with Laine as I'm sure your mum will remember her as being called DAWN !  Laine was Christened Dawn Lorraine, and for the first 16 years of her life was always referred to as Dawn.  However when she left her high school to attend a sixth form college she decided that she would rather use a shortened form of her middle name as her name.  Therefore Laine was what she became !!

I must admit, and Laine knows, that I struggled with this for some time.  You have to understand that by the time she was 16 I was living in Manchester and then London, so the times when I saw her were very infrequent.  Furthermore we don't really call each other up every week (or even month) so my mind set was still thinking Dawn.  So she tolerated me calling her Dawn for some time (not because I didn't want to call her Laine, I just needed time to find a new box for her new name in my poor little mind !!) and now I think I'm just about there.

When she was 17 she met and moved away from home to be with her boyfriend, Jason, who she is to marry this summer.  She's quite a little homemaker and very happy indeed with her lot.  Nothing has come easily for her over the last 2 - 3 years and a few months ago suffered a very serious ectopic pregnancy.  Happily she recovered after a few very difficult days, but above all else she is extremely content and, like her mum, is a very loving and caring person.

I do think that I'm very fortunate with Marilyn and her children.  The distance, albeit small, between our homes, especially when Ray and Laine were in their teenage years, meant that I didn't see them all that much, sometimes as little as a couple of times a year.  But they have always had a place for me and I'm happy and lucky that we still remain close.  They have all come to stay with me in London, and I look forward to seeing more and more of them as they move forward in their respective lives.