Cathy Gla.s.s.

The Saddest Girl in the World.

The true story of a neglected and isolated little girl who just wanted to be loved.

Prologue.

This is the story of Donna, who came to live with me when she was ten. At the time I had been fostering for eleven years, and it is set before I had fostered Jodie (Damaged) or Tayo (Hidden), and before I had fostered Lucy, whom I went on to adopt. When Donna arrived, my son Adrian was ten and my daughter Paula was six; the impact Donna had on our lives was enormous, and what she achieved has stayed with us.

Certain details, including names, places, and dates have been changed to protect the child.

Chapter One.

Sibling Rivalry.

It was the third week in August, and Adrian, Paula and I were enjoying the long summer holidays, when the routine of school was as far behind us as it was in front. The weather was excellent and we were making the most of the long warm days, clear blue skies and the chance to spend some time together. Our previous foster child, Tina, had returned to live with her mother the week before and, although we had been sorry to see her go at the end of her six-month stay with us, we were happy for her. Her mother had sorted out her life and removed herself from a highly abusive partner. Although they would still be monitored by the social services, their future looked very positive. Tina's mother wanted to do what was best for her daughter and appeared to have just lost her way for a while - mother and daughter clearly loved each other.

I wasn't expecting to have another foster child placed with me until the start of the new school term in September. August is considered a 'quiet time' for the Looked After Children's teams at the social services, not because children aren't being abused or families aren't in crises, but simply because no one knows about them. It is a sad fact that once children return to school in September teachers start to see bruises on children, hear them talk of being left home alone or not being fed, or note that a child appears withdrawn, upset and uncared for, and then they raise their concerns. One of the busiest times for the Looked After Children's team and foster carers is late September and October, and also sadly after Christmas, when the strain on a dysfunctional family of being thrust together for a whole week finally takes its toll.

It was with some surprise, therefore, that having come in from the garden, where I had been hanging out the washing, to answer the phone, I heard Jill's voice. Jill was my support social worker from Homefinders Fostering Agency, the agency for whom I fostered.

'Hi, Cathy,' Jill said in her usual bright tone. 'Enjoying the sun?'

'Absolutely. Did you have a good holiday?'

'Yes, thanks. Crete was lovely, although two days back and I'm ready for another holiday.'

'Is the agency busy, then?' I asked, surprised.

'No, but I'm in the office alone this week. Rose and Mike are both away.' Jill paused, and I waited, for I doubted she had phoned simply to ask if I was enjoying the sun or lament the pa.s.sing of her holiday. I was right. 'Cathy, I've just had a phone call from a social worker, Edna Smith. She's lovely, a real treasure, and she is looking to move a child - Donna, who was brought into care at the end of July. I immediately thought of you.'

I gave a small laugh of acknowledgement, for without doubt this prefaced trouble. A child who had to be moved from her carer after three weeks suggested the child had been acting out and playing up big time, to the point where the carer could no longer cope.

'What has she done?' I asked.

It was Jill's turn to give a small laugh. 'I'm not really sure, and neither is Edna. All the carers are saying is that Donna doesn't get along with her two younger brothers. The three of them were placed together.'

'That doesn't sound like much of a reason for moving her,' I said. Children are only moved from a foster home when it is absolutely essential and the placement has irretrievably broken down, for clearly it is very unsettling for a child to move home.

'No, that's what I said, and Edna feels the same. Edna is on her way to visit the carers now and see what's going on. Hopefully she'll be able to smooth things over, but is it OK if I give her your number so that she can call you direct if she needs to?'

'Yes, of course,' I said. 'I'll be in until lunchtime, and then I thought I would take Adrian and Paula to the park. I'll have my mobile with me, so give Edna both numbers. I a.s.sume that even if Donna has to be moved there won't be a rush?'

'No, I shouldn't think so. And you're happy to take her, if necessary?'

'Yes. How old is she?'

'Ten, but I understand she is quite a big girl and looks and acts older than her years.'

'OK, no problem. Hopefully Edna can sort it out if it's only sibling rivalry, and Donna won't have to move.'

'Yes,' Jill agreed. 'Thanks. Enjoy the rest of your day.'

'And you.'

She sighed. 'At work?'

I returned to the garden to finish hanging out the washing. Adrian and Paula were in the garden, playing in the toy sandpit. While Paula was happy to sit at the edge of the sandpit and make little animal sand shapes with the plastic moulds, Adrian was busy transporting the sand with aid of a large plastic digger to various places on the lawn. There were now quite sizeable hills of sand dotted on the gra.s.s, as if some mischievous mole had been busy underground. I knew that the sand, now mixed with gra.s.s, would not be welcomed back into the sandpit by Paula, who liked the sand, as she did most things, clean.

'Try to keep the sand in the sandpit. Good boy,' I said to Adrian as I pa.s.sed.

'I'm building a motorway,' he said. 'I'm going to need cement and water to mix with the sand, and then it will set hard into concrete.'

'Oh yes?' I asked doubtfully.

'It's to make the pillars that hold up the bridges on the motorway. Then I'm going to bury dead bodies in the cement in the pillar.'

'What?' I said. Paula looked up.

'They hide dead bodies in the cement,' Adrian confirmed.

'Whoever told you that?'

'Brad at school. He said the Mafia murder people who owe them money, and then put the dead bodies in the pillars on the motorway bridges. No one ever finds them.'

'Charming,' I said. 'Perhaps you could build a more traditional bridge without bodies. And preferably keeping the sand in the sandpit.'

'Look!' he continued, unperturbed. 'I've already buried one body.'

I paused from hanging up the washing as Adrian quickly demolished one of the molehills of sand with the digger to reveal a small doll caked in sand.

'That's mine!' Paula squealed. 'It's Topsy! You've taken her from my doll's house!' Her eyes immediately misted.

'Adrian,' I said, 'did you ask Paula if you could borrow Topsy and bury her in sand?'

'She's not hurt,' he said, brushing off the sand. 'Why's she such a baby?'

'I'm not a baby,' Paula wailed. 'You're rotten!'

'OK, OK,' I said. 'Enough. Adrian, clean up Topsy and give her back to Paula. And please ask your sister next time before you take her things. If you want to bury something, why not use your model dinosaurs? Dinosaurs are used to being buried: they've been at it for millions of years.'

'Cor, yes, that's cool,' Adrian said with renewed enthusiasm. 'I'll dig in the garden for dinosaur fossils!' On his hands and knees, he scooped Topsy up in the digger and deposited her in Paula's lap, and then headed for the freshly turned soil in a flowerbed that I had recently weeded. I thought that if Edna couldn't smooth over the sibling rivalry between Donna and her younger brothers and Donna did come to stay, she would be in very good company, and would soon feel most at home.

I made the three of us a sandwich lunch, which we ate in the garden under the shade of the tree; then I suggested to Adrian and Paula that we went to our local park for an hour or so. The park was about a ten-minute walk away, and Adrian wanted to take his bike and Paula her doll's pram. I asked Adrian to go to the shed at the bottom of the garden and get out the bike and doll's pram while I took in the dry washing and the lunch things, and closed the downstairs windows. Since my divorce, Adrian, in small ways, had become the man of the house, and although I would never have put on him or given him responsibility beyond his years, having little 'man' jobs to do had helped ease the blow of no longer having his father living with us, as did seeing him regularly.

It was quite safe for Adrian and Paula to go into the shed: anything dangerous like the shears, lawn feed and weedkiller was locked in a cupboard, and I had the key. Apart from being necessary for my own children's safety, this was an essential part of our 'safer caring policy', which was a doc.u.ment all foster carers had to draw up and follow, and detailed how the foster home was to be kept safe for everyone. Each year Jill, my support social worker, checked the house and garden for safety, as part of my annual review. The garden had to be enclosed by st.u.r.dy fencing, the side gate kept locked, drains covered and anything likely to be hazardous to children kept locked away. The safety checklist for the house itself grew each year. Apart from the obvious smoke alarms, stair gates (top and bottom) if toddlers were being fostered, the locked medicine cupboard high on the wall in the kitchen, and the plug covers or circuit breaker, there were also now less obvious requirements. The banister rails on the stairs had to be a set distance apart so that a small child couldn't get their head, arm or leg stuck in the gap; the gla.s.s in the French windows had had to be toughened in case a child ran or fell into them; and the thermostats on the radiators had to be set to a temperature that could never burn a young child's delicate skin. It is true to say that a foster carer's home is probably a lot safer than it would be if only the carer's own children were living there.

'And don't forget to close the shed door, please, Adrian,' I called after him. 'We don't want that cat getting in again.'

'Sure, Mum,' he returned, for he remembered, as I did, the horrendous smell that had greeted us last week after a tomcat had accidentally got locked in overnight; the smell still hadn't completely gone, even after all my swabbing with disinfectant.

'Sure, Mum,' Paula repeated, emulating Adrian, having forgiven him. I watched as Adrian stopped and waited for Paula to catch up. He held her hand and continued down the garden, protectively explaining to her that she could wait outside the shed while he got her pram so that she wouldn't have to encounter the big hairy spiders that lurked unseen inside. Ninety per cent of the time Adrian and Paula got along fine, but like all siblings occasionally they squabbled.

Half an hour later we were ready to go. The bike and doll's pram, which we had brought in through the house to save unpadlocking the side gate, were in the hall. I had my mobile and a bottle of water each for the children in my handbag, and my keys for chub-locking the front door were in my hand. Then Paula said she wanted to do a wee now because she didn't like the toilets in the park because of the spiders. Adrian and I waited in the hall while she went upstairs, and when she returned five minutes later we were finally ready for off. I opened the front door, Adrian manoeuvred his bike out over the step, and Paula and I were ready to follow with her doll's pram when the phone on the hall table started ringing.

'Adrian, just wait there a moment,' I called, and with Adrian paused in the front garden and Paula waiting for me to lift the pram over the step I picked up the phone. 'h.e.l.lo?'

'Is that Cathy Gla.s.s?' It was a woman's voice with a mellow Scottish accent.

'Speaking.'

'h.e.l.lo, Cathy. It's Edna Smith, Donna's social worker. I spoke to Jill earlier. I think you're expecting my call?'

'Oh yes, h.e.l.lo Edna. I'm sorry, can you just wait one moment please?' I covered the mouthpiece. 'It's a social worker,' I said to Adrian. 'Come back inside for a minute.' He left his bike on the front path and came in, while I helped Paula reverse her pram a little along the hall so that I could close the front door. 'I won't be long,' I said to the children. 'Go into the lounge and look at a book for a few minutes.' Adrian tutted but nevertheless nodded to Paula to follow him down the hall and into the lounge.

'Sorry, Edna,' I said, uncovering the mouthpiece. 'We were just going out.'

'I'm sorry. Are you sure it's all right to continue?'

'Yes, go ahead.' In truth, I could hardly say no.

'Cathy, I'm in the car now, with Donna. She's been a bit upset and I'm taking her for a drive. I had hoped to come and visit you, just for a few minutes?'

'Well, yes, OK. How far away are you?'

'About ten minutes. Would that be all right, Cathy?'

'Yes. We were only going to the park. We can go later.'

'Thank you. We won't stay long, but I do like to do an initial introductory visit before a move.' So Donna was being moved, I thought, and while I admired Edna's dedication, for doubtless this unplanned visit had disrupted her schedule as it had ours, I just wished it could have waited for an hour until after our outing. 'I should like to move Donna to you this evening, Cathy,' Edna added, 'if that's all right with you and your family?'

Clearly the situation with Donna and her brothers had deteriorated badly since she had spoken to Jill. 'Yes, we'll see you shortly, then, Edna,' I confirmed.

'Thank you, Cathy.' She paused. 'And Cathy, you might find Donna is a bit upset, but normally she is a very pleasant child.'

'OK, Edna. We'll look forward to meeting her.'

I replaced the receiver and paused for a minute in the hall. Edna had clearly been guarded in what she had said, as Donna was in the car with her and able to hear every word. But the fact that everything was happening so quickly said it all. Jill had phoned only an hour and a half before, and since then Edna had seen the need to remove Donna from the foster home to diffuse the situation. And the way Edna had described Donna - 'a bit upset, but normally ... a very pleasant child' - was a euphemism I had no difficulty in interpreting. It was a case of batten down the hatches and prepare for a storm.

Adrian and Paula had heard me finish on the phone and were coming from the lounge and down the hall, ready for our outing. 'Sorry,' I said. 'We'll have to go to the park a bit later. The social worker is bringing a girl to visit us in ten minutes. Sorry,' I said again. 'We'll go to the park just as soon as they've gone.'

Unsurprisingly they both pulled faces, Adrian more so. 'Now I've got to get my bike in again,' he grumbled.

'I'll do it,' I said. 'Then how about I get you both an ice cream from the freezer, and you can have it in the garden while I talk to the social worker?' Predictably this softened their disappointment. I pushed Paula's pram out of the way and into the front room, and then brought in Adrian's bike and put that in the front room too. I went through to the kitchen and took two Cornettos from the freezer, unwrapped them, and took a small bite from each before presenting them to the children in the lounge. They didn't comment - they were used to my habit of having a crafty bite. I opened the French windows and, while Adrian and Paula returned to the garden to eat their ice creams in the shade of the tree, I went quickly upstairs to check what, tonight, would be Donna's bedroom. Foster carers and their families get used to having their plans changed and being adaptable.

Chapter Two.

So Dreadfully Sad

No sooner had I returned downstairs than the front door bell rang. Resisting the temptation to peek through the security spy-hole for a stolen glance at my expected visitors, I opened the door. Edna and Donna stood side by side in the porch, and my gaze went from Edna, to Donna. Two things immediately struck me about Donna: firstly that, as Edna has said, she was a big girl, not overweight but just tall for her age and well built, and secondly that she looked so dreadfully, dreadfully sad. Her big brown eyes were downcast and her shoulders were slumped forward as though she carried the weight of the world on them. Without doubt she was the saddest-looking child I had ever seen - fostered or otherwise.

'Come in,' I said, welcomingly and, smiling, I held the door wide open.

'Cathy, this is Donna,' Edna said in her sing-song Scottish accent.

I smiled again at Donna, who didn't look up. 'h.e.l.lo, Donna,' I said brightly. 'It's nice to meet you.' She shuffled into the hall and found it impossible to even look up and acknowledge me. 'The lounge is straight ahead of you, down the hall,' I said to her, closing the front door behind us.

Donna waited in the hall, head down and arms hanging loosely at her side, until I led the way. 'This is nice, isn't it?' Edna said to Donna, trying to create a positive atmosphere. Donna still didn't say anything but followed Edna and me into the lounge. 'What a lovely room,' Edna tried again. 'And look at that beautiful garden. I can see swings at the bottom.'

The French windows were open and to most children it would have been an irresistible invitation to run off and play, happy for the chance to escape adult conversation, but Donna kept close to her social worker's side and didn't even look up.

'Would you like to go outside?' I asked Donna. 'My children, Adrian and Paula, are out there having an ice cream. Would you like an ice cream?' I looked at her: she was about five feet tall, only a few inches shorter than me, and her olive skin and dark brown hair suggested that one of her parents or grandparents was Afro-Caribbean. She had a lovely round face, but her expression was woeful and dejected; her face was blanked with sadness. I wanted to take her in my arms and give her a big hug.

'Would you like an ice cream?' Edna repeated. Donna hadn't answered me or even looked up to acknowledge my question.

She imperceptibly shook her head.

'Would you like to join Adrian and Paula in the garden for a few minutes, while I talk to Cathy?' Edna asked.

Donna gave the same slight shake of her head but said nothing. I knew that Edna would really have liked Donna to have gone into the garden so that she could discuss her situation candidly with me, which she clearly couldn't do if Donna was present. More details about Donna's family and what had brought her into care would follow with the placement forms Edna would bring with her when she moved Donna. But it would have been useful to have had some information now so that I could prepare better for Donna's arrival, antic.i.p.ate some of the problems that might arise and generally better cater for her needs. Donna remained standing impa.s.sively beside Edna at the open French windows and didn't even raise her eyes to look out.

'Well, shall we sit down and have a chat?' I suggested. 'Then perhaps Donna might feel more at home. It is good to meet you, Donna,' I said again, and I lightly touched her arm. She moved away, as though recoiling from the touch. I thought this was one hurting child, and for the life of me I couldn't begin to imagine what 'sibling rivalry' had led to this; clearly there was more to it than the usual sibling strife.

'Yes, that's a good idea. Let's sit down,' Edna said encouragingly. I had taken an immediate liking to Edna. She was a homely middle-aged woman with short grey hair, and appeared to be one of the old-style 'hands-on' social workers who have no degree but years and years of practical experience. She sat on the sofa by the French windows, which had a good view of the garden, and Donna sat silently next to her.