{"id":113,"date":"2016-09-25T16:36:08","date_gmt":"2016-09-25T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/laladom.world\/?p=113"},"modified":"2017-04-04T13:29:18","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T12:29:18","slug":"have-we-got-a-goat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/?p=113","title":{"rendered":"Have we got a goat?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was sitting, sleepy-eyed, halfway down the stairs, looking at the cuckoo clock and listening to the tiny bleat on the air. All the lights were on and hushed voices murmured &#8211; not wanting to wake us children up. Dad came into the hall, caught sight of me and beckoned me. I moved down the stairs, looked at him and asked, &#8220;Have we got a goat?&#8221; He smiled and shook his head as I followed him into the living-room.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting by the fire, with a bundle on her knee, was Dr Fitzmaurice. &#8220;Look at him&#8221; she said, &#8220;your little brother.&#8221; I sat down cross-legged in front of her on the rag rug and she placed the tiny bundle on my knee.<\/p>\n<p>It was love at first sight &#8211; not because he meant I could sit and wonder at him into the early hours, but because he was so tiny, so neat, so peaceful and because he held my finger as he slept. That&#8217;s how Les and I met in May 1954. I was eleven years and eleven days old.<\/p>\n<p>I can remember how happy my parents were at that time &#8211; my Dad leaning over the bump in my Mum&#8217;s brown woollen skirt to kiss her and their arms holding each other and their babe. This joy grew when Les came and added to it. The house became a busy place, full of love &#8211; a place to grow. No one was more happy than my Dad and the bairn was the apple of his eye.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-at-5-Duchess-Road-1958.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-111\" src=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-at-5-Duchess-Road-1958-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"Les in Duchess Road\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-at-5-Duchess-Road-1958-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-at-5-Duchess-Road-1958-768x532.jpg 768w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-at-5-Duchess-Road-1958.jpg 1014w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-109\" src=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"Les and Dad at Land's End\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall-768x529.jpg 768w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall-1024x706.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-and-Dad-Cyril-Walke-at-Lands-End-Cornwall.jpg 1428w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The next day, at dinner-time, I ran all the way home from school to make sure he was still there. He was, to my relief. I have so much to thank him for and my love for him has grown to this day.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-108\" src=\"http:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"Les in Bedford 1954\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955-768x573.jpg 768w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955-1024x764.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/laladom.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Les-Walke-5-Duchess-Rd-Bedford-Spring-1955.jpg 1038w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was sitting, sleepy-eyed, halfway down the stairs, looking at the cuckoo clock and listening to the tiny bleat on the air. All the lights were on and hushed voices murmured &#8211; not wanting to wake us children up. Dad came into the hall, caught sight of me and beckoned me. I moved down the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/laladom.world\/?p=113\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Have we got a goat?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laladom.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}