The Three Bears and Andrew…where it all began

Part 1 The Bears.

Sammy Mickey and George, in that order were my childhood imaginary friends, I called them bears, boys that were bears apparently; that kept getting captured by the bad black eyes and red eyes who were the leaders of a group of bad people that also had blue, green and brown eyes. An elaborate story for a young child and where on earth did I get those names? and what were they really ?  I have no idea. There was no one in my family with these names. According to my mother they appeared when we moved to a new built house in  the Wester Broom area of Edinburgh. I was about 2 yrs old and they remained as my friends until we moved to another address when I was 7. Because I was so young I only have a vague recollection of their presence, more of the feeling of them, not a description of what they may have looked like. According to my mother I played and spoke of them often. I do remember on one occasion getting a row from my mum for going searching for them in what was then nearby farmland an area which is now a built up housing estate. Mum had said that I had told her that I needed to rescue them from Black eyes who was going to hurt them. As an adult I have often wondered if there is some history about three boys who had some harm befall them pre the 1960’s.

Part 2 Andrew

Throughout my childhood, until the age of 16 I saw Andrew on a number of occasions.  Of our first meeting I have no recollection. This story was again related to me from my mother. It was again around the age of 2 to 3 yrs old.  She would often pop her head into my bedroom when I was playing with my toys and dolls to check if I was okay. She said that I was always chatting away and she just presumed it was make believe conversation with the dolls, however as soon as she opened the door I would stop. At first she did not think this was unusual until one day she asked me if I was talking to them. Apparently I had turned around and said no it was to the boy Andrew and that every time she came into the room he went away. A few weeks later when she had some family photographs out, that she maintains I had never seen, I pointed to one and said, that’s Andrew. I now know that he was my mothers younger brother who was killed crossing a road when he was just 12 years old.

Rose