A WOMAN who couldn’t have children of her own, has revealed that she and her husband fostered 74 teenagers, and spent many nights at the police station as they kids were “always in trouble”.
Norma Shaw, 83 was unable to have children after suffering from TB as a child – which left her spending seven years in hospital.
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After marrying husband Ian, when she was 42 years old, the pair decided to give fostering a go.
Over the next 38 years, the retired psychiatric hospital receptionist gave 74 children a loving home, and only stopped when Ian’s health was too bad to continue.
Discussing what it takes to be a foster carer, Norma, from Portsmouth told SWNS: “You must be consistent, don’t take anything too personally and above all keep that sense of humour because you’re going to need it.
“I’d love to have children but because I had such a terrible illness as a child myself I couldn’t.
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“My husband used to say the word to describe it is challenging – but there was never a dull moment.
“Every person is different, me and my husband used to do alternative nights at police stations – one of our kids was always in trouble with the law.
“We both really enjoyed fostering, we try to show what a normal family is, it’s not all roses and honey, it’s a trauma that goes with it.
“A lot of these kids came untrusting of anybody and the world – don’t be judgemental, keep a sense of humour.
“I always thought this could be a child of mine.”
Norma and Ian fostered their first child in 1986, after undertaking a course on how to handle children breaking the law.
Their first foster child was 15 when she came to live with them and is now a grandmother, and still in touch with Norma.
Norma said that the longest stay they had was four-and-a-half years, and added that they would occasionally provide emergency respite care for one night.
The pair fostered their final child in 2020, just before Ian sadly passed away.
Norma said that although she has kept in touch with some of the children she looked after, others she has never heard from again.
However, she hopes that she has had a positive impact on their lives.
“When you see them turn their life around it’s lovely, we offered them a stable home when a lot of these kids didn’t know where they were going from one day to the next,” she said.
“They had backgrounds of family break up, alcoholism, parents were drug takers – I always thought if you can’t help other people what’s the point.
“Someone said to me if you’d had children, you wouldn’t have cared for all these other children.”
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