Somebody in here must know more about what's happened The term suggests there is something medically, or perhaps socially, wrong with me - but in fact I'm far from alone. According to one parenting website, about 14 per cent of women aged 18 to 34 want just one child.The trend comes at a time when families throughout Europe are already shrinking. The average family size is now less than two children per family (except in Ireland), according to the European Commission. "When are you going to have another?""You're joking," I said. "After all that?"But as my baby grew, so did the insistence that I needed to reproduce again."When are you going to give Ruby a little brother or sister?" I was repeatedly asked I tried avoiding the question, I tried using excuses. In the end I resorted to the truth: I DON'T WANT ANOTHER CHILD.Women in the UK now have an average of 1.65 children, the lowest average level of births per woman since records began in 1924 As far as I'm concerned, I have my 1.65 worth already. I had just come out of hospital after a traumatic three days of giving birth. My breasts were covered with cabbage leaves, supposed to ease the swelling, and my stitches felt as if they were barbed wire. "Isn't she lovely?" one visitor asked, looking at my baby. No one can understand how this happened."A small bunch of flowers was placed yesterday at the block of flats.. We think they may be able to piece together exactly what happened."Another witness who lives close to the tower block, said: "The ambulance crew who treated the girls seemed to recognise them after picking them up earlier in the evening."It was a shocking sight to see them both lying there, side by side. Somebody in here must know more about what's happened."Police said a post-mortem examination was being carried out on the bodies.Detectives have appealed for witnesses, and especially want to speak to a man in his twenties who directed the ambulance to the girls' bodies and to the driver of a car which left shortly afterwards.A spokesman for Essex Police said that there was no suggestion that anyone else was involved in the tragedy.He added: "However, we know of two people who were in the area at the time who we would like to speak to.
Everybody here is shocked and saddened by what has happened." She said she did not know anybody on the estate who knew the girls or where they lived.The tower block, one of the highest in the area, had recently been targeted by gangs trying to install pirate radio masts.Penny Lawrence, who lives on the seventh floor, said she believed drug dealers lived in the block. "Somebody must have buzzed the girls into the flats otherwise they couldn't have entered. Residents said they were baffled as to how the girls fell from the window, which is 18in (50cm) wide and four feet (1.2m) from the floor.A woman, aged 82, who lived on the 11th floor of the building, said neither she or her neighbours heard any commotion before the accident."The first we knew of it was when the police knocked on our door at four in the morning," she said "At first I thought it must be some sort of sick joke It is a terrible mystery. We will not be able to identify the girls [publicy] until a formal identification has taken place and the family members have been informed."Police said that they were trying to establish the chain of events and were uncertain if the girls committed suicide or were involved in a prank that went tragically wrong.Witnesses said that an ambulance had earlier picked up the girls, who were apparently drunk, on the town's seafront and taken them to hospital. Two teenage girls died after plunging 120 feet from a narrow window on the 11th floor of a council tower block early yesterday in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Motorways will be cleared of traffic, and no aircraft will be allowed within 10 miles of the helicopter.Certainly, it seems a long way away from the visit by John F Kennedy in 1961, when he rode up the Mall in an open-topped Bentley.. One of a five-strong squadron, it is "battle-hardened", with duplicate electric and hydraulic systems, and armouring to withstand small arms and explosive fire. The President may travel by this method to Sedgefield, Tony Blair's constituency If he does fly, his motorcade will travel on the ground. A communications switchboard (linked to five external aerials) is able to connect the President to the White House, Air Force One, or numbers programmed in for his visit, such as Tony Blair or the Queen.Marine One, a variation on the standard Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter, is able to cruise at 150mph and travel 580 miles. |
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