A Vision of School

Mary Abbott's early life was, as the author says, fraught with all sorts of disadvantages, which she laughed off cheerfully. A baby boomer from working-class Lancaster, Mary was born different: she was blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other. In the early 1950s, aged just four, she was packed off to a special boarding school in Devon. Her resilience and good humour, as she progressed from school to school, forming friendships, getting into scrapes, discovering boys and reaching out into the world of work, are recorded here in her own pithy words. How she survived both a painful operation on her feet and her mother's departure with a fancy man are signs of her determination. She grew up, married and became a mother, found work and fund-raised for the RNIB, and finally married the author. He has dedicated her inspirational story to 'her beautiful memory'. Mary is no longer with us, but these vivid words of hers will ensure she stays in our thoughts. Kenneth R Fairbrother was born in 1951 in Ashton-under-Lyne. He started working life in heavy engineering, married and raised two sons. After divorcing, he married Mary and they lived in Stalybridge until her passing. Since then he has remarried and now lives in cornwall with his wife. This is where he set down this account, written mainly by Mary.