Susan French
Susan Emily Bridge was born at Odstock Hospital, Salisbury on August the third 1949; the second of eight children. Her father, Henry Bridge, served in the army in the war against the Japanese in Burma and earned the Burma Star. His war service affected his health badly, and he lived as an invalid for the last years of his life. He met Susan’s mother, Mary Sweet, at Larkhill army camp, where she was serving with the WRVS.
Her
first memories are of living in an attic bedroom at 122 Castle Street; now
demolished to make way for the Wilts and Dorset bus depot. They moved to
a council house in Pembroke Road, and then moved to 62 Waters Road, where
many of her brothers and one sister were born. There were wonderful outings
to Old Sarum, where there was a rope suspended from a tree to swing out
between the inner and outer earth embankment and drop off into piles of
leaves. Or they’d toboggan down the dusty slopes on their shoes –
until a toe caught in a root meant a headlong tumble.
Her first school was St Mark’s, then in Wyndham Road in Salisbury,
when Mr Pye was headmaster. An Eleven Plus failure, she went on to St Edmund’s
Secondary Modern, then at the original school building in School Lane off
Bedwin Street. School services were held in St Edmund’s Church, now
Salisbury Arts Centre.
Her
first job was at Henley’s Wessex, in New Street. Then she became a
Cadet Nurse at the Old Manor Hospital, beginning her training on her eighteenth
birthday.
At this time the family moved to Maryland Close, Bemerton Heath, where Susan
lived until her first marriage to Owen French. They had two children, Rebecca
and Jonathan. Their first home was at Three St Michael’s Close, Bulbridge.
She was delighted when her mother produced another child, Jeni, soon after
her own daughter was born. The family’s second home, for many years,
was at One, Manor Farm Cottages, Homington. Susan worked as a home help
while the children were growing up, then as a care worker for the ‘Spastics
Society’ – now Scope – at The Douglas Arter Centre, for
about fifteen happy years, until an accident meant she could no longer lift
clients safely.
Susan’s second husband, Geoffrey Down, Has secondary progressive Multiple
Sclerosis. In between caring for him, she writes, gardens, walks and plays
scrabble with anyone willing to take her on. She is a Parish Councillor,
Secretary to the Bourne Valley Link Scheme, on the local MS Group Committee,
and runs Salisbury New writers.
Writing has always been a passion for Susan; she began writing in exercise
books under the bedclothes by the light of the street lamp when she was
eleven.
If you would like to contact Susan, please click here