Marilyn and Me by Shanta Everington

Marilyn and Me

Shanta Everington

I really felt I was seeing the world through the eyes of a 20-year old woman with learning disabilities, a world with frightening dangers and everyday problems. Her character, needing constant support and reassurance, but convinced of her ability to make her own decisions, is totally real.

Extract
Rose has always been my Care Manager, since I became an adult when I was eighteen. When you are an adult you can do what you want and you don't have to do what your mum says. Rose says I am an adult and I can make my own decisions. Mum says you can't always get what you want. Mum says life isn't fair. She says life isn't a bed of roses but I don't know if she says that because of Rose.
Marilyn Monroe's managers got her into modelling and films and stuff. They helped her learn how to sing and act and choose the right clothes. You have to have a manager if you are famous. It is different to the manager you get if you are disabled or have problems. They're just social workers but they call themselves managers. They only manager your care but sometimes they help you get jobs too, like Joan. Her Care Manager helped her get a job in a florist, which is a shop that sells flowers, but she didn't like it. She kept getting the flowers mixed up.
Parallels
  • Some Kind of Hero by Donna Hay
  • A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
  • Carry Me Down by M. J. Hyland
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Violence
Explicit sexual content