TRUE-LIFE
Mum never gave up on my brother – if only she had
Jordan Bush, 22, Newport
Splashing in the pool, I watched my brother Lewis, then 9, shoot out of the flume, followed by our older sister Lauren, then 12.
‘I want a turn,’ I grinned, scrabbling to join the queue.
It was summer 2007 – I was 6 and our mum Kelly, then 29, had taken us to Trecco Bay Holiday Park in Wales.
Our dad left when I was a baby, and it was tough for Mum bringing us up alone. But she filled our early childhoods with fun. We looked forward to our hols at Trecco Bay.
After a day in the pool, we’d pile back to our caravan for fish and chips.
But those happy family times felt a lifetime away as Lewis entered his teens.
He started skipping school, staying out all night, demanding cash from Mum, getting into fights.
Mum was always picking him up from the police station, and he was slapped with endless antisocial behaviour orders.
She was beside herself. But Lewis would kick off when she told him off.
I’d sit in the living room, and whatever was on telly was drowned out by Lewis screaming and shouting. Amid this, our nan died. We were bereft, and Lauren, then 17, started drinking heavily.
Things spiralled. Lauren was out all hours downing cider.
Lewis was taking drugs now, too.
He grew to 6ft, and towered over 5ft 5in Mum, yelling and lashing out.
Those ASBOs turned to convictions for battery, criminal damage.
Mum lost her grip and Lauren and Lewis ran riot. So, when I was still a teenager I moved out but stayed close to Mum. She needed me.
Especially when, in April 2020, Lauren, 24, died in hospital of cirrhosis and liver failure. Mum and I were distraught, as was Lewis. Especially as COVID-19 restrictions meant we couldn’t visit and say goodbye.
We had a family funeral, and hundreds left flowers on Lauren’s grave.
We muddled on, but in 2021, Lewis, then 23, was released from another prison stint.
Having already lost one child, Mum took him in.
‘He’s bad news,’ I warned. ‘I love him, Jordan. He’s my son,’ she said.
Yet he made her life hell and every other day she’d call me in tears.
‘Lewis has punched up the doors,’ she’d sob. I tried talking to him. ‘Lewis, you can’t keep doing this to Mum,’ I’d say. ‘Alright, Jord, I’ll try to change,’ he promised.
He’d toe the line for a few days before flying off the handle again.
I helped as best I could, but in January 2023, my partner Kieran, then 29, and I had our little girl.
‘I have to put her first,’ I told Kieran.
Mum was a wonderful nanny, despite everything. She only lived five minutes away.
Lewis made my mum’s life hell, she’d call
