I’ve come to the point where I’m just going to write about anything on this blog because I feel like it. I was going through my albums on Facebook and came across one of my Brighton trip not too long ago. As I went through every photo, I remembered a family I met on the train coincidentally that told me a story.
It was around 4pm and my father and I were bored almighty, so he just randomly suggested going to Brighton for a change. I, as always, was up for some travelling and new adventures, so there we were on the train to Brighton having no clue what to do there, just taking everything as it came.
That’s when I noticed a family of 5 children with their mother entering the train on the next stop. They sat near us and seemed so energetic. My father had a big laugh at the first boy in the family who was 11 years old because he looked a bit odd. The girls were all close in age, ranging from 4 to 10 years old. Last but not least there was also the younger boy, in a pram close to his mum.
Each child had their own little characteristic, two girls in particular were quite attention-seeking, and therefore both came up to me for a little chat. The 4 year old climbed all over me and loved my canon, she kept kissing me and was rolling about everywhere, the 8 year old girl started asking me questions about myself. I honestly had quite a laugh, this is how most of our conversations went :
Girl : “What’s your name?”
Me : “Svetlana”
Girl : “…… that’s a tricky name.”
Mum : “ANA! YOU’RE MEANT TO SAY IT’S A PRETTY NAME!”
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Me : “so Ana, how old are you?”
Ana : “I’m 8! and you?”
Mum : “Ana!! you don’t ask a lady how old she is! It’s rude.”
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So as you can see, the mother was trying to teach her daughter good manners, and even though she probably sounds a little wacky from the way I am quoting her, she was saying it in a very shocked but loving way to her daughter. Of course, Ana kept talking. She wanted to know where I was from, what I was doing there, where I was going and I answered all her questions and asked them back. She told me that her mother was divorced, and that they were going to see their new dad. She told me that she lived in England her whole life (because that was a big deal to her and she had no idea where Malta and Russia were). She mentioned how she loves all her brothers and sisters and her mum is the best… and then ran off and called her younger sister fat, which resulted in her mother sitting down with both of them and explaining that they should not do that because there are serious mental problems that could arise if they keep doing that, and she explained what Anorexia and Bulimia were. The girls understood and apologised to each other…. and then gave each other a smirk, of course.
My father had been practicing his awful photography skills through all this and stood up to go to the bathroom, this is when Ana came back to me to continue her biography. Out of nowhere she mentioned her mother had been drinking two bottles of beer, she mentioned how her father had been cruel to her mum, she spoke about how her mum is madly in love with her new man and how all of them are so proud of her. Slowly, slowly, Ana told me all that was looking rainbow and butterflies was actually a shower of rain and remember that little insignificant laugh my father had at the beginning? Well, the boy actually had problems because his mother had a complicated birth, resulting in his twin dying. I suddenly felt horrible and guilty for my father for laughing at this poor boy, he seemed like such a lovely child, so quiet, so loving to his sisters, but he himself knew that his other half was missing, you could see it from his eyes. The 4 year old by now was just hugging her soft toy after listening to all of these facts about the life around her.
I looked out of the window and realised it had just begun to rain… I felt like the weather suddenly changed because the happiness I first shared with this family turned into such a sad moment where I had no idea what to say. The mother looked at her daughters with embarrassment because of their honesty, and I was taken aback by it. It made me realise how innocent children can be, that even though they know exactly what’s happening, they don’t exactly know what that is. I feel that meeting this family was a story waiting to be told. Something to change me on the inside, something that stirred an emotion in me to tell my father when he returned “It’s not funny, their brother died.”
Now for changing the story around, it was the family’s last stop and as they got out, the mother rushed into the arms of her new man and the children just twirled round in joy for having their whole family together again, but I should mention, that this does not change the fact that us as beings shouldn’t be narrow minded, everyone goes through hardships – whether we know it or not. Young or old, married or not, even the mother kept a smile on her face after listening to Ana’s public speech of recollected facts and memories. I wish the family all the love and luck in the world.
