I was born in Shettleston, in the 40’s, in Balintore Street just before the war ended.

My father came from Shettleston but my mother was born in the Gorbals and came along with her one brother and four sisters in the 20’s. When she was still a small child, two of the older children had been left behind in the Gorbals to be brought up by their Grandmother who was ‘comfortably off’ (this was a regular occurrence in Glasgow). As the eldest sister, my mother at an early age became matriarch of the family even though there were only a few years age difference between them all.