A WOMAN who was unable to have children revealed she and her husband raised 74 teenagers and spent many nights at the police station because their children were “always in trouble”.
Norma Shaw, 83, was unable to have children after suffering from tuberculosis as a child – leaving her spending seven years in hospital.
two
After marrying her husband Ian when she was 42, the pair decided to try adoption.
Over the next At age 38, the retired psychiatric hospital receptionist gave 74 children a loving home, and only stopped when Ian’s health was too bad to continue.
Discussing what it takes to be a foster carer, Norma, from Portsmouth, told SWNS: “You have to be consistent, don’t take anything too personally and most of all keep that sense of humor because you’re going to need it. .
“I would have loved to have children, but because I had a terrible illness as a child, I couldn’t.
“My husband used to say the word to describe it is challenging – but there was never a dull moment.
“Every person is different, my husband and I used to do alternative nights at police stations – one of our sons always got into trouble with the law.
“We both really enjoyed being adoptive, we tried to show what a normal family is, it’s not all roses and honey, it’s a trauma that comes with it.
“A lot of these kids didn’t trust anyone or the world – don’t judge, keep a sense of humor.
“I always thought this could be my son.”
Norma and Ian raised their first child in 1986 after taking a course on how to deal with children who broke the law.
Their first adopted child was 15 when she came to live with them and is now a grandmother and still in contact with Norma.
Norma said the longest stay they had was four and a half years and added that they occasionally provided emergency care for a night.
The pair raised their last child in 2020, shortly before Ian sadly passed away.
Norma said that although she kept in touch with some of the children she cared for, others she never heard from again.
However, she hopes she has had a positive impact on their lives.
“When you see them change their lives it’s lovely, we’ve given them a stable home when a lot of these children didn’t know where they were going from one day to the next,” she said.
“They had a history of family breakdown, alcoholism, parents using drugs – I always thought if you can’t help other people, what’s the point.
“Someone told me that if you had children, you wouldn’t have taken care of all these other children.”
Fabulous will pay for your exclusive stories. Just email: fabulousdigital@the-sun.co.uk and put EXCLUSIVE in the subject line.
UK childcare laws: what parents need to know?
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
