45) Just when you think things are going well. Mums are always right.

                             That carpet has finally gone. My mother was right after all.

The dreadful carpet of my youth

Its final destination :)

Many years ago. 1977 or thereabouts, when I was just a child, there was a carpet, which was delivered, brand new, in some sort of plastic wrapping, to my house. 'Where'd you want it mate?' said the carpet delivery bloke. 

'Ah just put it on the stairs for now,' said dad. 

'Not being funny mate, but be careful you don't leave it rolled up too long ot you'll have trouble laying it flat,'

'I'll be fitting it this afternoon, just leave it there will you.' Dad never took well to being told what to do.

School-aged me was quite excited. a new carpet, which smelled fresh and lovely and would make our home look lovely, like everyone else's home, was about to be laid in our house. a lovely gold and brown swirly design with autumn flowers and a nice fresh springy feel to walk on. Mum was excited. Their current flooring was just the wooden plank floorboards with a rug by the bed. How lovely to have a nice bedroom carpet at last in their bedroom.

For the time being, dad said, it would be ok rolled up on the stairs 'until he had time to clear a bit of room to lay the carpet himself at the weekend.

The weekend came and went. 'We'll both be dead and buried before anything gets done with that bloody carpet,' said mum.

The week turned into the following month. The month turned into the following season. Winter was now fast approaching. 'Can we see if we can get the carpet fitted before the winter?' Mum asked.

'We'll see.' dad said, as he disappeared into the garden to cut the grass and do a spot of weeding.

Winter turned colder, the ground was hard and frozen. Mum bought bed socks and a warmer quilt. 'Can we have the carpet down for Christmas?' she asked, trying to sound casual.

'We'll see.' said dad. 'I have to do this damn tax return or they'll fine me.' He went outside to sweep up some leaves.

Christmas came and went. It was a cold winter in 1977.  Mum got more bed-socks for Christmas.

Spring arrived and the carpet was still rolled up on the stairs. I started school and had new friends round. What fun to slide down the rolled carpet. Dad said not to play on the carpet as it was brand new.

The following Christmas came and went. Mum asked about the carpet. 'If I clear some of the stuff, can we put the carpet down in the bedroom?'

'I've got so much to do. you just don't realise what I have to do.' dad said to her. 'If you keep nagging I shan't do the damn carpet at all!'

Mum tried to clear the stuff herself. we kids helped. It was fun making a space for the carpet by moving everything to the sides of the room.

Dad came in from the garden. He was furious. 'Don't you move my things or I'll never be able to find them again.' he snapped, storming back out into the garden in a strop, to cut the grass.

1978 ended, as did 1979 and 1980 and a few more years too. My school friends would come to visit and always went a little quiet when they came in. 'S'cuse the mess, we're decorating.' said the young teenage me, quoting my mum word for word with what she said when guests came around. As if that made everything OK. I didn't think it mattered that there was no painting stuff in sight, no dust sheets, Mum said it so it was so.

1982 came and I'd noticed, when I'd been invited to friends houses, that they had single colour beige carpets - imagine how that would show the dirt. They had to take their shoes off when they went in their house. They must be very strict, I thought, because they had NOTHING anywhere hanging about. No papers on the table, no boxes of stuff all over the floor, nothing on the stairs, no piles of papers on the table.

At my house there was stuff everywhere, that was normal, everywhere there was an open space, it was filled with boxes of  'stuff'. The carpet was still on the stairs, still rolled up, although the top edge, where the bag was open, was getting a little frayed.

1984, an old friend came round. 'That carpet's still there.' she said, in surprise. To be honest I'd become blind to it, like the wallpaper, or the stair banister, it was now a fixture. We were all used to having a narrowed stairway. Mum had stopped asking about the carpet.

1987, the polythene bag on the carpet ripped and bits were hanging off. We decided it was best to take it off as it gathered the dust and was making the place look tatty. There was no way the carpet would go in the bedroom now. There was FAR too much stuff there now.  Mum had a little pathway to her side of the bed. Mum had more going on in her head than that bloody carpet. She was starting to forget things.

1990 The carpet would emit a plume of dust if it was knocked while we went past. The end was very frayed. Mum was taken into the local mental health hospital, where she sadly passed away in 1994.

I moved out to my own place the year mum passed away. I needed everything for my new flat, including a new carpet. I could have cut that carpet on the stairs to size and made do with that but I never mentioned it. Nobody had a swirly carpet any more. I certainly didn't want that one. I bought a room-size pale grey remnant for my flat and fitted it myself the same day.

In 2005 I met a friend from school in the local pub. We were both grown up now and had a good catch up over a few beers. 'You haven't still got that carpet rolled up the stairs at your dad's house have you.' she laughed. 'Do you remember? It had some sort of 70s swirly design on it.' 

I laughed too 'Haha, course not,' I lied, and changed the subject.

2013, dad fell off a ladder and went to hospital. He'd broken a bone in his back falling off a ladder in the garden and had to wear a brace. He wasn't allowed home from hospital until the house was deemed 'safe'. The carpet on the stairs had to go. Not wanting to upset him, even though I was now an adult, I spent 6 weeks organising the house and struggled through the clouds of dust to put the damn carpet in my old room - now full of everything which had lined the corridor and stairs. The carpet cracked loudly when we bent it in half to fit in the bedroom and left a trail of black rubber backing.

Christmas Day 2025, dad fell and broke 3 ribs. The paramedics said they were sorry but they'd have to report the house as a safeguarding issue. Dad was again not allowed out until the house was 'safe'. There was no longer any room to move things about. It took 4 of us 30 minutes to clear enough space for the paramedics to get him out of the house. Dad wasn't allowed home again until the house was safe. I was quoted £2600 to clear one room and the hallway - everything would be cleared and then put back in and a mattress would be taken for disposal. The carpet was buried.

I worked like a dog and did the work myself. Nine weeks later he was allowed home. He was home for 3 months and then he fell over again and went back into hospital. It became clear he wasn't coming out again and he passed away age 95 in July 2026. 

While he was in hospital I took the initiative to start the clearing process and on August 1st 2026, I had cleared enough space that I could get to the carpet. It took its final journey and as you can see from the photos, it is now in a recycling centre.

Mum was right. Mums usually are...