Grant was a useless husband. He didn’t provide enough money, spent a lot of time at the pub with his friends, spoiled their daughter – making her life harder, and never did any of the things he promised he would, like fixing the leaking tap or repapering the dining room with the wallpaper she’d bought three months earlier.

On the odd occasion, she found herself feeling jealous of the old folk she looked after. No one ever looked after her. She was a skivvy at home, just as she was at work.

She loved Kayla, but the girl was difficult. Shirley had always made the excuse that it was because Kayla had a hang-up, as a result of being adopted, but in recent days she had found herself wondering if it was simply that Kayla wasn’t a very nice person. They had known very little about her biological parents. Perhaps they weren’t good people, and perhaps the apple didn’t fall so far from the tree.

Shirley met Grant when she was eighteen and by the time she was nineteen they were married. She had left school at sixteen and was working in a factory, packing meat, when they met. He was six years older and was her supervisor.

Desperate to move away from home, Shirley had jumped at Grant’s marriage proposal, and decided at the same time that she’d take a nursing course. Encouraged by her desire to better herself, Grant also quit working at the factory, and set up his own window cleaning business. They couple were broke but happy, and quickly wanted to have a baby. But after three years of trying, they paid a visit to their doctor, and after a few examinations it was concluded that Shirley was infertile due to a uterine abnormality.

The distraught couple soon decided they would adopt, and they put themselves forward. It took two years before they were awarded their little bundle, whom they named Kayla.

Grant doted on his little girl and she had him wrapped around her little finger. During their first few years together the family were happy, but as Kayla grew she became strong-willed and had soon built a wedge between the husband and wife. To Grant, Kayla could do no wrong, but Shirley wanted the girl to grow up learning manners and respect. ‘Don’t be so hard on her’, Grant would say if Shirley ever attempted to hold her child to account for her behaviour. Soon enough, rather than fight Grant, Shirley stopped trying as Kayla grew more and more unpleasant.

Now, at thirty-eight years old, Shirley spent her time at home trying to placate her teenage daughter, and her time at work trying to placate the elderly residents she was paid a poor salary to care for.