Teresa’s life story interview  

INTERVIEWER: Can you tell us a little bit about your family?   

TERESA: I had four brothers and one sister.   

INTERVIEWER: Where did you fit in in terms of age?   

TERESA: I was very – I was youngest. And my brother was the next youngest. And then just went up from there.   

INTERVIEWER: Were some of your brothers quite a bit older than you?   

TERESA: Some of them were, yeah, two of them.   

INTERVIEWER: Okay. And your mother and father?   

TERESA: My mum was unwell at the time so, she wasn’t well enough, but she did look after us as long as she could. And of course, like I said, she brought the five of us up. 

INTERVIEWER: So, if we think about when you were first going to school, which school did you go to? 

TERESA: I can’t really remember much about school because, I had a lot on.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Of course. And people will understand as the interview goes on why that would be. What are your earliest memories?  

TERESA: Just my mum and sister really, the life that we had together.  

INTERVIEWER: So your brothers-?  

TERESA: And me and my brothers and all,  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.  

TERESA: Two of them  

INTERVIEWER: And the other two had left home, had they-  

TERESA: Yeah.   

INTERVIEWER: Because they were older?    

TERESA: Yeah.   

INTERVIEWER: So, are you happy to say a little bit more about your mother’s illness? Because I know she was ill for a long time.   

TERESA: She was 42 years of age. And she also had cancer. In those days, it wasn’t curable because that didn’t have the works they got now. Unfortunately, she did die of the cancer. But, you know, she did best for the kids. Her kids, I mean.   

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I mean that made it, you know, that must have made things a lot more difficult. She was terminally ill.   

TERESA: Yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: So, how old were you when your mother died?  

TERESA: I would have been about- probably 9-ish.   

INTERVIEWER: So, what happened when it finally it came time for the long overdue consideration of getting you back into the community?  

TERESA: That was a big step for me, a really big step. I did struggle a lot. I was [mumbles] and I was thinking, like, things like, ‘the house wasn’t real’, and, you know, ‘it wasn’t mine, they wanted us out’, and things like that. You know, all sorts of things were going on. Took a good few years didn’t it? A good few years to get where I am today. I’m coping a lot better.  

INTERVIEWER: So, after 40 years, how did you feel about the prospect of coming out having lived probably, what, three quarters of your life in hospital?   

TERESA: I found it unreal as they call it, because it didn’t seem real to me. And I skipped asking for keys, you know, for the door, because I was just excited getting a bunch of keys for my house. You know, that’s all very exciting in some stages, very scary in some.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, because I guess you’d not really been taking decisions for yourself for all that time.   

TERESA: No, you got ordered to do what they said. So, you didn’t have your own mind. You don’t get to decide what you want to do.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, that must be very, very difficult to suddenly have choices and opportunities?

TERESA: It’s very, very scary. One big jump.   

SUPPORT WORKER: What happened with your transaction? How did you do your transaction?   

TERESA: I’d done a night. 

SUPPORT WORKER: First, you’d come with United Response, and you’ve done a few hours a day, maybe twice a week, and then once you got used to the staff with United Response, you done one week, you done a sleepover, and then it built up like that, but it was a very long process.   

TERESA: Yes, it was.   

SUPPORT WORKER: How long have you been in your house now?  

TERESA: Now nine years.   

SUPPORT WORKER: Nine years. With the support of - 

TERESA: United Response.

SUPPORT WORKER: Yeah.   

INTERVIEWER: And I think, as luck would have it, there was a newly adapted facility available. Do you want to tell us a bit about it?   

TERESA: Well, I found it exciting to arrange my own house the way I wanted it, you know, because it’s, you know, places are just black and white sort of thing, the houses. And I thought, because I got a bit money off the benefit people, so I decided to spend that money on the house, and I got a designer in to do the whole house.  

INTERVIEWER: So, do you want to tell us a little bit about the place where you live and sort of what it’s like? How many houses are there? Who looks after it?  

TERESA: It’s a bungalow, and there’s five others beside me. I’ve got big back garden and over the fence, I’ve got like a team. Oh, I’ve thought number one. Sorry, six…I forgot number one, I always forget number one, you see, and, and, and over there the fencing, I’ve got, like a big field, the stream run down. Horses are on there, on the field sometimes, and then suddenly you’ve got a good view. But the views are a bit rubbish at the minute, because the council haven’t got enough money to cut the grass so and, like I said, I’ve got a big garden, I lawn mow it myself, and I also tidy it up myself and just put things that I couldn’t do in the past, like ornaments in it. And, you know, bulbs, lighting bulbs, changing colour bulbs and things and picking exactly what I wanted. Nobody was sitting there going ‘Can’t have that. Can’t have that. You do this, you do this.’ I found it hard because I wasn’t used to it. But when I did get the house done, I was quite proud of it, wasn’t I? 

SUPPORT WORKER: Very proud of it.  

TERESA: And then I decided, because we had a council benefit to support it, and I decided to buy a big double bed for myself.   

SUPPORT WORKER: You watched it being built, didn’t you?   

TERESA: Oh yes, I did. I’ve still got that scaffolding as they call it. And the place getting built brick by brick. The workman was naughty, but he let us in, shouldn’t have done. He said, ‘you had to put this hat on’.  

INTERVIEWER: Oh, that was what you were in [mumbles],  

TERESA: Yeah. Then he came out. He says, ‘don’t tell my boss, just take the hat off before anybody sees you.’ So, he let me in without permission. 

INTERVIEWER: And you’ve, you’ve used those developed skills to do a few for United Response, I believe. Do you want to tell us a little bit about those? 

TERESA: I’ve got one as a Quality Checker. That means I go around the northeast or wherever they want me to go and see a client or whatever, make sure they’re being well looked after, make sure there’s no marks that shouldn’t be on them, and making sure they’ve got the facilities for that, whoever I’m seeing, a client, and make sure they’ve got hoisters, you know, for the client. Or if they’re in wheelchairs, making sure they’re being put in comfortably, they’re not huddled in and just making sure that they get the treatment that they need, and to check the house to see if it’s clean enough.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, okay, so using some of your experiences to help other people, which is great. Do you-? Is there anything else that you do?   

TERESA: I go there and do students’ interviews, like with the younger ones, you know, that’s just passed their exam or wherever, I talk to them about mental health and stuff like that. And then there’s like a Zoom, what I call a Zoom, it’s what I do with the computer. And I call Abbey; we’d discuss new staff that’s starting with United Response to say if they’re suitable or they’re not suitable.   

SUPPORT WORKER: But then you do meetings with Abbey, don’t you? You talk to all the new students and ask them questions?   

TERESA: Yeah. And then I go through, like a programme, like a video, where there’s two videos, actually, I go through with the students. One is like a young girl getting a new job for the first time, but it’s her choice, if you know what I mean, what she wants to do, not what anybody else wants her to do, which, that’s my case, too, and just basically making sure she’s happy at her job.  

INTERVIEWER: So, so in fact, you’re putting some bad experiences to really, really positive use,- 

TERESA: I try, I try. 

INTERVIEWER: -which is, which is a great, a great thing. And I’m sure people find what you- find your input very, very helpful from that point of view. Do you find that the attitude of people coming into the care sector now is very different to what it was when you were in secure hospital?   

TERESA: Some places no, and some places, yes, they haven’t changed, they still probably go back to way back in time. 

INTERVIEWER: In terms of the young people’s attitudes that you’re- that you’re dealing with- 

TERESA: The people I deal with. 

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Are they more caring now? And is it more to do with care- 

TERESA: I’m sure they are actually. So, that’s my job to make sure, you know, if they got a scratch on the chin or anything, you know, I got to report it as a serious concern.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: Do you want to tell us a bit about your cat? 

TERESA: His name’s Bojack. He’s a rescue cat. I’ve had him [for] seven and a half years. A spoiled cat. A spoiled cat. 

INTERVIEWER: All right. 

TERESA: A very spoiled cat.  

INTERVIEWER: Fair enough. 

TERESA: And I class him as my baby, because he is my baby. Gets away with murder. He does, even when he trips me up, he still gets away with murder. I don’t tell him off. He just sits there and goes [impression] and says “what you doing on the floor?”. Afterall, he put me there, but he doesn’t care. He just toddles off. And I think I look after him perfectly well. Do his litter and things, give him a good home. Give him the best life I can.   

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. Is he a house cat?  

TERESA: Yes, he is an indoor cat, yeah, he doesn’t go out.   

SUPPORT WORKER: What’s your one rule for staff with Bojack?   

TERESA: Not to feed him, not to give him scraps.  

INTERVIEWER: Right. 

TERESA: And if anybody, I don’t care who they are, if anybody at all be nasty with him, well, they see the door quicker than they come in, because I won’t tolerate that. Say, like, if I’m in the kitchen or something, that somebody’s telling him off, and if I hear it, God, you know, God forbid, I will stick up for Bojack, you know. I say, “Right, get your things. Out. Don’t like your attitude towards him.”

INTERVIEWER: There’s not a lot of point telling a cat off.   

TERESA: No, he never gets told off, but the person that’s nasty with him would get told off because they know the rules I’ve got in the house, for Bojack you know, if you’re not nice for him, you’re not nice for me. Get it with the door. 

SUPPORT WORKER: Can you describe what Bojack looks like for us?   

TERESA: He’s black and white. He’s got a little heart on his side. He’s black and white. Very cheeky. Cheeky face.   

INTERVIEWER: He is the best sort of cat, isn’t he? He’s lovely.   

TERESA: He’s lovely. He’s my baby.  

SUPPORT WORKER: What have me, you and Bojack done for the last five years? 

TERESA: Oh, yes. [Something] I’ve never done in my life is take Bojack on holiday over to different caravans that well- We are having difficulties at the moment, finding the caravan that’ll accept a cat, but yet they say pet friendly, and they don’t accept him. And we’ll keep saying ‘well you said pet friendly’, but…  

SUPPORT WORKER: We’ve done five lovely weeks, haven’t we?  

TERESA: Oh, yeah. 

INTERVIEWER: Whereabouts have you been on holiday?   

TERESA: We’ve been to Whitly Bay,- 

SUPPORT WORKER: Crimson Dean. 

TERESA: Crimson Dean.  

SUPPORT WORKER: Hexham in a Lodge. 

TERESA: Hexham in a Lodge. 

INTERVIEWER: Hexham’s nice, isn’t it?  

TERESA: I got lost because this first time I was in the hotel, you see and yeah, I just got lost. I was banging on everyone’s door, and one woman was shouting, ‘I’m in bed, do you mind?’ and I thought that was Ali, and I said, ‘Open this door now.’ And then, she opened it for us and everybody started and I say, ‘and I know you’re here somewhere. You better show yourself.’ Then, of course, I was on the wrong floor, wasn’t I? So, I woke up everybody, so- And when I went upstairs, because I went down for a tab, you see, and I come back up, and she was standing at the door, and she says, ‘Where have you been?’ ‘You won’t believe it, Ali’. She says, ‘what you done?’ Had to come back to the reception find your room. I said, ‘because I got lost’. I said, ‘one woman was shouting ‘I’m in bed, do you mind’. And I thought, it was you playing up, you know having a joke with us’, and I said, ‘You better open this door now, because I was banging on the door. And of course, I bumped into her next morning. Good job we were leaving that day. She went, ‘uh oh, turn your head.’  

INTERVIEWER: You were probably leaving that day anyway.   

TERESA: We were. We were. It was so embarrassing. And then, she says, ‘Right, from now on, I’m not letting you on your own for a tab. I’ll come down with you. You’re not knocking on anybody else’s doors.’ Well, that happened- Six times? – I must have done. I said, ‘I know she’s on this floor somewhere’ then there was a couple of kids shouting, you know, saying, ‘Daddy, there’s somebody at the door’. He said, ‘yeah don’t open it’.   

INTERVIEWER: Great story.   

INTERVIEWER: You have ambitions to be an author?   

TERESA: Yes, I wish to be. Yes, make a book, [mumbles] of course  

INTERVIEWER: Your autobiography. Well, on the evidence of what we’ve talked about today, that would be a best seller, I suspect, because it’s a really, it’s not, it’s not- 

TERESA: It’s not like telling lies, it’s the whole story.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, it’s not a happy story, but it’s a very powerful and affecting story.  

TERESA: But that, again, I’m not telling because I want sympathy or I want people to feel sorry for us, or, you know, anything like that, I don’t- that’s not the reason why I’m doing it. I’m doing it because I need people, other people, to understand, you know, what situations there are…  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah. And also, it mustn’t ever be allowed to happen again.  

TERESA: That’s it. Yeah, yeah. But it still goes on in places. I mean, I have seen documentaries about places. You know, that’s still going on.   

INTERVIEWER: Well, I very much look forward to the- to the book being published. 

TERESA: You and amongst others.   

INTERVIEWER: I’ll no doubt ask you to autograph it.   

TERESA: That’s what they have asked for. One says, he lives up in Poland. And he says, I want to book with your autograph on it.  

INTERVIEWER: Yeah, I am intending to pay for it, so, I’m not asking for it for free.   

TERESA: [Laughs] You might get it free, seeing as I know you, you might get it free.   

INTERVIEWER: But Tess, thank you so much. It’s been a really powerful interview. And was there anything else that you wanted to say that you haven’t been given the opportunity?   

TERESA: Just I am looking forward to writing a book about it and all.   

INTERVIEWER: Oh, hopefully you’ll find this interview helpful from that point of view as well. I would like to think we’ve played whatever small, very small part in helping with that process. So, thank you, Tess.   

TERESA: Right. Thank you very much for having us.   

INTERVIEWER: You’re welcome.