'Too much, too young'

1991 - I went back to the Midlands, happy that my friend had survived such a traumatic experience.

I kept in touch and when we spoke she told that her husband had not changed. Even though he knew she had nearly died he didn't relent. He still ignored the court papers; still refused to let her see her children.

He told Elaine he'd been right to tell the children she was mad - after all the tumour was the physical evidence of her madness wasn't it? He told their children that - the tumour had made their mother mad.

I wonder how he reconciled this view with the fact that she didn't come back to him after the tumour had been taken away. For surely, under his logic, she could not be mad anymore.

He was a strange guy.