The Unexpected Visitor

John Smart was having tea with mother Olive
There was a loud knock upon the front door
When he answered it, a woman stood there
She said “I suppose you’re wondering what I’ve come here for?”

Olive shouted “Who is it?
Why don’t you ask them in?”
The woman pushed past John
And said “I don’t know where to begin”

She introduced herself as Joan
And Olive looked upset
Then she put her hand on John’s shoulder
And said “We’ve already met”

Joan said “I live two streets away,
I've been there for eighteen years
Your ‘mother’ hasn’t told you about me
That is how it appears

Your mother is your grandma
It is I who is your mother
You have siblings you don’t know about
Two sisters and one brother

I was pregnant at fifteen
And that woman you call mother threw me out
She said she’d bring you up better than me
Of that I had no doubt

I’ve seen you almost every day
But I’ve had to keep my distance
My wicked mother Olive
Has always denied my existence”

John looked at his ‘mother’
And said “What have you got to say?
Is this what you were trying to tell me
Just the other day?”

Olive Smart looked forlorn and said
“What this woman says is true
Even though I’ve raised you as my son
I did not give birth to you”

Joan put her hand upon John’s shoulder
And said “I was going to write you a letter
Then I thought that telling you face to face
Would for both of us be better”

A hush fell upon the room
You'd have heard someone drop a pin
Then suddenly John spoke and said
“I can’t taken all of this in

For years I thought I was an only child
And that Olive was my mother
Now I find out that’s not the case
And I’ve got two sisters and a brother

Do they know about me?
Do they know that I exist?
If they don’t know anything
Then I feel I must insist

That you tell me why you’ve waited till now
To turn my whole life upside down
I’ve lost count of the many times
I’ve seen you in the town

Often I’ve seen you watching me
And each time mam got annoyed
I used to ask her why you were staring
She used to say I was paranoid”

A tear worked its way down Joan’s cheek
And she headed for the door
Then she uttered the words John had dreaded
“I don’t want to see you anymore”

John watched her leave without a word
Then lay his head on Olive's shoulder
Olive gently held him and she said
“She’ll regret today when she’s older”

John looked up at Olive and said
“My natural mother you may not be
But unlike your daughter  
You've always been there for me”

Joan left town for good that day
On board a number twenty bus
Not a word to daughters or son
She didn’t want a fuss

John never saw Joan again
Never met his sisters or his brother
But he knew as long as he had Olive
He couldn’t have wished for a better mother