Many years ago, we hadn`t been married very long, baby was just 5 months old, and hubby was at work on Whitsun Saturday. I heard the band playing for the Whit walks, so picked my daughter out of the pram and went outside to watch. Afterwards I was chatting for a while to neighbours, then opened the front door to go back inside, to be met with an enormous wall of black smoke! I`d forgotten that I`d left the chip pan on, and my kitchen was on fire!
The man next door went in with a damp towel round his head and brought the chip pan out and put it on the ground then went and threw water everywhere till the fire brigade turned up.
It was an old house, the wall behind the cooker was made of wood, so that was all blistered and black, the cooker was in a state, light switches all burned out, and the ceiling and walls all black from smoke, and later in the day a small patch of ceiling fell out.
I was just so thankful that I took the baby outside with me.
I waited at the bus stop across the road for hubby to get home from work, the fire brigade and electricity board were still in the kitchen. When he got off the bus I said "Promise you won`t be mad?"!!
A few weeks later, kitchen still not redecorated and hole still in ceiling, my mother came over for a visit with my 4 year old half sister. Annette walked into the kitchen, looked round, then said "Oh, I do like this house!" I was just thinking what an odd child, when she followed it up with "Isn`t it lovely and dirty?"!!