I Miss Mummy: The true story of a frightened young girl who is desperate to go home
Cathy Glass, the no.1 bestselling author of Damaged, tells the story of the Alice, a young and vulnerable girl who is desperate to return home to her mother.Alice, aged four, is snatched by her mother the day she is due to arrive at Cathy's house. Drug-dependent and mentally ill, but desperate to keep hold of her daughter, Alice's mother snatches her from her parents' house and disappears.Cathy spends three anxious days worrying about her whereabouts before Alice is found safe, but traumatised. Alice is like a little doll, so young and vulnerable, and she immediately finds her place in the heart of Cathy's family. She talks openly about her mummy, who she dearly loves, and how happy she was living with her maternal grandparents before she was put into care. Alice has clearly been very well looked after and Cathy can't understand why she couldn't stay with her grandparents.It emerges that Alice's grandparents are considered too old (they are in their early sixties) and that the plan is that Alice will stay with Cathy for a month before moving to live with her father and his new wife. The grandparents are distraught – Alice has never known her father, and her grandparents claim he is a violent drug dealer.Desperate to help Alice find the happy home she deserves, Cathy's parenting skills are tested in many new ways. Finally questions are asked about Alice's father suitability, and his true colours begin to emerge.
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HarperElement
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published by HarperElement 2010
Copyright © Cathy Glass 2010
Cathy Glass asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007267446
Ebook Edition © JULY 2010 ISBN: 9780007389803 Version: 2017-01-16
Contents
Chapter Three: Stretched to the Limit
Chapter Six: Sleeping with Wolves
Chapter Eight: When Can I See My Mummy?
Chapter Nine: Pass the Parcel!
Chapter Thirteen: Placement Meeting
Chapter Fourteen: A Beam of Love
Chapter Fifteen: A Dreadful Mistake?
Chapter Sixteen: Breaking the Rules
Chapter Seventeen: Warm and Cosy Inside
Chapter Eighteen: Bad Practice
Chapter Twenty: Nail in the Coffin
Chapter Twenty-Two: ‘Just One Line’
Chapter Twenty-Three: Hunger Strike
Chapter Twenty-Five: ‘Icing Sugar’
Chapter Twenty-Six: Happy Sand
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Letter
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Judge’s Decision
Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Milestone Missed
Chapter Thirty-One: Don’t You Want Me?
Chapter Thirty-Two: Love from Mummy
Chapter Thirty-Three: Expecting an Ogre
Chapter Thirty-Four: Don’t Make Me Go!
Chapter Thirty-Five: Very Disappointed
Chapter Thirty-Six: A New Year’s Wish
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Ten Days
‘Mum has snatched her! The police are looking for them now. Goodness knows where they could have gone! They’re not at home.’
I could hear the anxiety and panic in the social worker’s voice on the other end of the phone, and I appreciated why. From the little I knew of the child’s mother, I knew she was very unstable, with ongoing mental health problems, compounded by drug addiction. I also knew she was fiercely opposed to having her daughter taken into care and had been fighting the social services for three months to stop it. But while no one wants to see a child forcibly removed from home, sometimes there is no alternative if the child is to be kept from harm.
‘When did this happen?’ I asked, equally concerned.
‘Two hours ago. They can’t have got far. The police have circulated a description of them, and the ports and airports have been alerted. No one could have foreseen this happening – otherwise we’d have taken Alice sooner.’
Alice was the little four-year-old I’d been expecting all afternoon. I’d been told the day before that the social services were going to court in the morning to ask the judge to grant an ICO (Interim Care Order) so that Alice could be brought into foster care. I knew from the referral (the print-out that gives the child’s basic details) that both her parents were drug users, and because neither of them could look after Alice she’d been staying with her maternal grandparents. I also remembered reading that Alice attended nursery from 9.00 a.m. to 3.15 p.m. every day.
‘Was Alice snatched from her nursery?’ I asked, puzzled, aware of the high security that now surrounds schools.
There was a slight hesitation. ‘No. The head teacher phoned the social services first thing this morning to say Alice wasn’t in nursery. When we went to the grandparents’ home after court this morning, to collect Alice, she wasn’t there.’
Now, I don’t think I’ve got incredible insight but if I’d been a social worker I think I might have heard alarm bells ringing if the child I was about to bring into care was suddenly absent from nursery on the morning of the court case.
‘We think the grandparents may have colluded in their granddaughter’s abduction,’ the social worker added. ‘They’re being interviewed by the police now, and I’m going to see them soon. I’ll phone you again later.’
