When Jane Jackson, 73, first became a grandmother, she was knocked sideways with love. “It was pure magic,” she says, “this tiny little person looking up at me with two blue eyes.” Jane’s granddaughter – her son’s child – lived in the North East of England with her parents, but often visited Jane and her husband Marc in Westbury-on-Trym, a suburb of Bristol. There were lots of visits and sleepovers in the summer holidays. “We had such fun,” says Jane. “As a grandparent you don’t get wound up by stuff you do as a parent, and it was just an utter joy.”
However, when her son’s marriage broke down, things took a turn. It was 2007, and Jane remembers after a day out, her seven-year-old granddaughter saying: “I’ve been told to dump my family in Bristol.” Jane was shocked, and didn’t know what to say, not wanting to make things worse. “The writing was well and truly on the wall,” she says.
Jane’s son’s relationship with his wife became untenable, and he now also had reduced contact with his daughter. “He’d ring me in a distressed state,” she says. “My son’s view was that his daughter had been through enough, and he wasn’t going to make life more difficult for her. So he chose to step back and returned to live in Bristol. It’s the hardest decision he’s ever made.” For a while, Jane was still able to see her granddaughter – but then those visits stopped altogether.
