Colour Blind

The McQueen family go out of the way to pick fault with the marriage but when Bridget reveals she is pregnant the McQueens have no choice but to accept the marriage. The family are ostracised and Bridget avoids her racist family. But seaman James has to work away and when he is gone Matt (Bob Cryer) the family bully visits Bridget to “arrange” a miscarriage. During her pregnancy James keeps a close eye on Bridget but before the baby can be born he is called away again leaving Matt free to barge round to a heavily pregnant Bridget’s house once more. but during the Bridgets labour her mother Kathie McQueen (Derbollah Malloy) has summoned Nellie Milligan to operate on Bridget and arrange for the baby to stillborn if it is black. But before the deed can be done, Bridget gives birth to a baby girl who she and James calls Rose Angela. The year’s pass and Bridget and James live quietly rarely seeing friends accept for Tonythe orphan th McQueens took in who is secretly in love with Bridget but one night things come to a head Matt McQueen, still despising the young Rose-Angela and her father as much as ever, picks a fight with James, a fight which sees James almost kill Matt. Fearing for himself James runs away to sea leaving Bridget and snatching Rose-Angela until Tony persuades him to let her go. The Racial abuse continues in the second part of the story as a grown up Rose-Angela (Carmen Edjoba) works in service as a house maid but after tiring of being thought of as a mere whore she leaves and secures a job working as a housekeeper for an eccentric painter Micheal Stanhope (James Larkin) and the two fall in love but when things are shaken up with the return of James whose friend Hassan(Art Mallik)later confesses to Rose-Angela that he too is in love with her. Torn by her need to care for her dying father and her love for Micheal, Rose Angela must find a way to be with the man she loves despite the wagging tongues.

Catherine Cookson Storyteller