Matthew was ‘part of the furniture’ of my early years. I’m a year and a bit older, but I don’t remember a time before him. My mum and Sandra kept in touch after teaching together, and sometimes Matthew would come to play. I always looked forward to seeing him.

While mum and my sister Liz would humour my games to a point, few people embraced my world of dolls and dressing up with the enthusiasm of young Matthew. If Matthew was coming, the games were sure to be good! 

One of my clearest memories of Matthew was at Havelock Rise, I would have been 6 or 7 Matthew about 4 or 5. My mum had remarried by then and we lived with my 3 step brothers and step sister, and I hadn’t seen Matthew for a while. 

We left the adults to get on with their boring adult things and headed for the dressing up box. Even though Matthew was younger than me, he knew a lot! I remember him introducing me to Shakespeare through getting the dolls to re-enact (i think the balcony scene?) from Romeo and Juliet. This was a new world to me! I must get reading to catch up! Realising that I wasn’t quite on the same page for recreating Shakespeare plays with dolls, we muddled through onto other things. We both loved singing and music. Having quickly exhausted our shared repertoire, Matthew told me about a singer called Tina Turner. I had heard of her, but didn’t know any songs. Matthew was gobsmacked, don’t know any Tina Turner songs?! This must be remedied immediately! Matthew, dressed in something flash from the dressing up box (& i think a sparkly wig?) treated me to a performance of Steamy Windows, complete with Choreography. I was impressed (and a little intimidated!). I clearly had some work to do to keep up with my young friend and newly established culture vulture, Matthew. Xx