I was now 17 years of age.  I desperately wanted to move out of home.  One of my friends suggested we share.  This sounded very exciting.  We set out to look at some units in a nearby area.  We could only afford a very small amount of money between us.  The units in our price range were old and dirty.  The were in areas that had not been looked after.  The carpets were worn, the curtains torn or missing, the taps leaked and the kitchens looked prehistoric.

Added to this we had no furniture.  Lyn didn’t seem too bothered by this.  We could use boxes for tables and put a table cloth on it.  Milk crates would be our chairs.  Somehow the magic seemed to disappear and I didn’t feel that this would be any better than my current living situation.

This really stressed me.  I hated home and I didn’t seem to have a future.  My attitude seemed to really upset Mick too.  He was Italian and his wife needed to stay home until she was married.  This couldn’t happen, so he would need to come up with a better solution.

On the weekend we went out for dinner.  He seemed really happy that day.  In fact he was beaming.  Over dinner he told me he had this great plan.  We would marry as soon as I was 18 which was less than 11 weeks away.  I said yes immediately.  This was the perfect solution to my problem.

Immediately my thoughts shifted to an engagement and a wedding. We would need to tell our parents of course!  The too would rejoice at our news.  All my problems were over.