After Two Years Abroad, I Returned Home to Discover My Son Had a “Surprise” Experience.

Id spent two years living in the south of France, and when I finally trudged back to my flat in London I was greeted with the kind of surprise you only get in family sitcoms. My daughter, Blythe Whitaker, had wedded a bloke from Belgium, and Id been shacked up at their place for a good two years, looking after my newborn grandchild and keeping the house from collapsing into a pile of dirty dishes.

Blythe and her husband, Jacques, worked for the same insurance firm, so they were only home for a quick dinner and a kiss on the cheek. I thought that would be the end of my gueststatus, but fate had other plans. One evening they told me, very politely, that they no longer needed my help and that I should find somewhere else to stay. A month later I was back in my own place, only to discover that I wasnt exactly on the welcome list there either.

While I was still at Blythes, my son Eddie Clarke went through a nasty divorce, quit his exwifes flat and, without so much as a headsup, moved straight into my little London studio. He brought his new partner, Amelia, who was already eight months along, and expected the sofa to become a doubledecked bunk bed. No permission was asked, no Can I? was uttered. What was I supposed to dothrow them out on the street? No, of course not. But how are three people, soon to be four, supposed to live in a oneroom flat when neither Eddie nor I have the penny to rent a proper place?

I rang Blythe, explained the whole circus, and hoped shed roll out the red carpet again. She didnt. She and Jacques have a different outlook on lifemore let the chips fall where they may than lets keep the family together.

Eddies reaction is understandable; he didnt anticipate my return after two years abroad. So now Im sleeping on the kitchen sofa, wandering the neighbourhood by day, doing my shopping, popping over for a cuppa with friends. Eddie and Amelia get on like a house on fireno shouting, no dramayet Amelia treats me as if I were an unwanted piece of furniture.

Its crystal clear that she doesnt like my presence in the flat. Who would have thought that at sixty Id feel like an obsolete spare part, while someone else runs the household? Eddie seems to have only one thing on his mind: his pregnant wife. The housing dilemma is the last thing on his radar.

Im hunting for a parttime job, hoping to afford my own little nest. The new inlaws live out in the Cotswolds, and Im toying with the idea of telling Amelia she should move in with her parents. Will Eddie be able to find work out there? I doubt it. Im stuck in a loop of indecision, not knowing whether to stay, go, or simply wait for the next episode of this family drama to unfold.