excellent article from the Guardian on one families fears and hopes for the strike, says it all really.

Wife: 'I'll beg or borrow to tide us over'

Kirsty Scott
Thursday November 28, 2002
The Guardian

Carolyn Millar is folding her blue scarf into a small square on the table in front of her, over and over until the material is bunched and unyielding.
"It's a stressful time," she says. "It frightens me."

The scarf helps keep out the cold when she is standing on the picket line outside Falkirk fire station to support her husband, Chris, a firefighter for 10 years.

"Because of the nature of the job, wives and partners are very understanding," says Carolyn, 33. "I have told him I am there for him, and I am. I will fight tooth and nail for this.

"If I have to sell the car or my jewellery, I will do what it takes. I will beg or borrow to be there because I believe in what they are doing."

But at home in Slamannan, the bills are piling up, and the couple's 14-year-old daughter Kylie has been told Christmas will be lean. There is no strike fund and Carolyn's part-time job at a local haulage firm would not support the family.

"It's not the best time of year for this to happen, is it?" says Carolyn. "It will be a horrible Christmas.

"I have tried my best to explain to Kylie that if we are lucky enough to put anything under the tree, it will be quite sparse.

"From a financial point of view, the primary concern is paying the mortgage. Friends and family have offered to help out if it gets to the point that we are destitute. Paying my bills frightens me.

"I think back to the coal miners' strike. I remember packing food boxes with my mum to send off to them. I hope it does not come to that here - that we are relying on the public to help feed us."

Chris pops his head round the kitchen door to ask her a question and she smiles. Last week, she sat up with him after he was called out to a road accident in a village not far from their home.

"Two young boys had been in the car and it had hit a wall, going fast," Carolyn says. "One of them died at the scene. You can imagine what he looked like when Chris got there. He came home quite upset about the whole thing.

"I try to get him to talk to me about what he has seen and what affects him. It's some form of therapy, I suppose.

"He says his job is to go in and help people and he can't allow himself the luxury of thinking how he feels about what he's looking at."

She is glad they have a strong partnership. "From talking to the guys and their wives, if this goes on for another three or four months there will be casualties in some of the marriages. Cracks are starting to appear in some couples.

"I know couples that aren't speaking, where he's in the spare room. People are not sleeping well, they are irritable, they are not eating very well.

"It's a horrible situation."

She worries about the safety of the public during the strikes, and hopes support does not fade if the dispute stretches on.

She hopes, too, that people truly appreciate what Chris does.

"There is this stereotype of the firefighter, young muscular chaps standing there semi-naked on the calendars," she says. "In reality they're not like that.

"They are just ordinary people doing a hero's job. What they're asking for is not a lot of money for what they do."