I was worried that Aunt Katinka would know that they weren’t the same knickers, but Mum said it didn’t matter. In fact, my mother felt that buying me a replacement pair was unnecessary. “But she’ll make me wear a nappy if I don’t,” I told her.
“Well you wear one for bed anyway,” I recalled my mother reminding me. “I few more hours won’t hurt.”
I remember trying to explain to my mother the difference between wearing a nappy in the day as opposed to wearing one for bed but tried to avoid too much detail. “It’s only wee at night,” I told her. I recalled the sense of shame I felt as I begged my mother to buy me that pair of knickers.