Letter 23

14^th July 2014

Dear Catherine,

You must be on your summer holidays now; I am sure that must make you happy.  You must have been working hard for your AS level exams so you deserve a break.  I say you must have been working hard, but of course I don’t know, I can only imagine you carried on where you left off after your GCSE’s.  And, of course I don’t even know where you live, although someone said they thought you lived in Watford.  Your form teacher at Sacred Heart said you were considering St Dominic’s and Watford Grammar.  They subsequently told me that you didn’t take up an offer of a place at St Dominic’s, but they didn’t know, or choose to say where you actually went.  If you do actually live in Watford, it would make sense that you attend Watford Grammar, as I know it is a good school.  Your three eldest step brothers and step sister all went to St Dominic’s and enjoyed being there, so I thought you probably would too.  Your next eldest step sister, Zara went to Watford Grammar.  She also got on very well there and went on to do Law at Birmingham University ending with a 2.1 degree.  I’m sure you would get on with Zara, especially if you both attended the same school, although you never actually met her, by a strange turn of fate.  She does know all about you and does look forward to meeting you at some time.  The other thing I wonder is what subjects you are studying; also if you plan to go to university?  I started saving for your university education more than 10 years ago and kept going even after our separation.  There are four different savings, one with National Insurance which you could actually have now, only worth a bit less than £2000.  Two more have about a year and a half to run to maturity and the last is available to you when you are 18.  I know you said you don’t want to see me, which I have always respected, but I still feel a responsibility for you as my daughter, nothing will ever change that.  I am not sure how I am going to let you know how to access the accounts, I suppose I will just have to wait until the time and see what I can do.  I may have to pass all the details on to a solicitor.  Things seem to be so much more complicated that I would ever have imagined.

You remember your cousin Gavin from Dublin.  He has been on holiday in the UK for the past month and is staying with me at present.  It is so nice to have family close to me again as I am living by myself.  I actually enjoy being by myself, as I have freedom to do whatever I want at home without disturbing any one.  The flat is much too big for me really, so it is good to have someone share for a while.  Dare I say it, but you would be welcome to stay here if ever you wanted.  Part of the reason I bought the flat where I did was with you in mind, in case you wanted to live with me and were going to St Dominic’s.  But that was a ‘pipe dream’.  Yet if the time came and you actually wanted to, the room is always there for you.  I look at your Facebook account every now & again and see from your profile photos; you look very attractive and content with school friends and in the most recent your step sister Marie.  But your image is receding from me, at least the reality of your image.  But thoughts of you will never leave me.

With all my love for now,

dad  xxx                                                                           at work