Brighton and Burnham

Recently, I asked my parents about where they came from and how they met. I was surprised to learn that they had only known each other for about fifteen years. This is my story as well as theirs: a story of how two completely different families met and joined together.

My mother is called T and is from Brighton but my father, D, is from Burnham. They are very different: D has one sister, T has three. Even their dads were different! T’s dad did loads of different jobs that all involved driving. D’s dad was always a civil servant. Despite all that, they both love books, but T was poor so she had to get them from the library. By 2005, they were both living in Leeds, D living in what is now my house.

They both had a friend called Chris, who lived in Rothwell. Chris had lived in his house for a long time and although the furniture had changed many times, the layout was still the same. In his living room, there were two sofas and one time when T and D both went to his house, he was already there with another of his friends, Mat. Chris and Mat were both on one sofa so T and D sat on the other sofa, next to each other.

They got on really well and talked together for ages without Chris. Later, Chris described it as one of the most surreal things he had ever seen. After that, they didn’t see each other for six months, but they texted and phoned each other. In 2006, T moved to D’s house and an extension soon had to be built to house all the books. In 2009, in a snowstorm, I was born and four years later they were married. As of 2020, we have around 4000 CDs in the house and 6000 books. I also enjoy reading and around 1000 of the books are mine.

From Brighton and Burnham to Leeds, two different people drawn together. This is our story and I hope it was interesting. We are in Leeds and we are proud of our diversity. If stories were emotions, this would be happiness and friendship. Three places, one family and happiness.