When Home Truths first spoke to Linda Dilley, her daughter Ellie was about to marry Bruno. But Ellie and Bruno are having some problems with their marriage. So to help out, Linda and Tony have taken in the children...

Nathan, Linda and Savannah

Ellie and Bruno's wedding was "peaceful and wonderful", says Linda, but now they're apart. Ellie was only 16 when she met Bruno and Linda thinks the problem is that Ellie has grown up a lot since then.

Their two children, Savannah and Nathan, are now living with Linda and Tony. This was precipitated when Linda became worried about Savannah. She is 2½, but was mostly silent with a vocabulary of about six words. When Ellie made plans to go to college to train as a teacher, Linda suggested that the children come and live with them. They handed them over.

Linda realises that this is a lot to take on. In fact, she describes it as terrifying. "It really is the most scary thing I’ve ever done. Grandchildren are perfectly small human beings who normally go home at the end of a golden day".

Linda doesn’t think the children miss their parents. They talk to Ellie on the telephone but neither one of them seem that bothered when they leave. Linda feels like the children are hers now, but she didn’t want it like that. Within a fortnight she wanted Ellie to be so miserable that she would come and live with them to be with her children.

Their unofficial adoption of the grandchildren has entailed a massive mind-shift for Linda and Tony. They have had to child-proof their home. "A nice little cottage in Kent has just become a fortress of safety gates".

Tony with Nathan

There is also some anger towards Ellie and Bruno. Linda thought she'd brought up her daughter with a better sense of responsibility. But she says, Ellie does miss the children. "We do have tearful phone conversations." It was a particularly traumatic moment when baby Nathan said his first words and Ellie wasn’t there.

Linda is not sure how it will all end. She thinks that either Ellie will come to live with them and share the responsibility, or she will leave the children with Linda until she has finished her training - which is five years. Linda says, this means "I’ll do the hard work and then she’ll come along and say thanks a lot mum, I’ll take over now. It might be a long dark tunnel with no light at the end of it".

But there is some good news because Ellie is getting on well at college and realises that the only justification for what she's done is to qualify as a teacher. Of Bruno, Linda says, he's welcome in her house to see his children as often as he likes.