It was far from how John had hoped to spend his fifth birthday that June in 1957. It had been a Saturday which meant that father had been home and there had been a joyous opening of presents with both mother and father there to watch John's obvious pleasure and gratitude for his new bike and some clothes. John was an only child so his parents tended to spoil him. In the afternoon, they'd all gone downtown together to have a meal in a café where John's father had arranged a birthday cake to be brought to the table with five candles on it. Both his parents and the café staff had sung 'Happy Birthday' to him. He was both embarrassed at the attention and immensely grateful that he had such wonderful parents who had gone to so much trouble for him. His birthday party proper with his friends was to be the next day and he was really looking forward to that too.

Such a wonderful start to the day had led to such a terrible ending. They had come out of the café and onto the pedestrian crossing outside. As usual, his parents had gone through the crossing code with him,: Look right, look left, look right again and, if the road is clear, cross on the crossing.' It was clear when they started, but a large lorry came rushing down the hill at them and sounded its horn. John's father turned and saw the lorry coming towards them. Realising that there was no time for them all to get out of the way in time, John's father flung John clear of the lorry as it smashed into both his wife and himself. As John landed clear of the lorry's destructive path, he saw his parents flung into the air as he hit his head on the curbstone and, mercifully, blacked out.

He awoke in a hospital bed with a bandage around his head and hurting from the severe bruising which he had received in his fall. A nurse bent over him, "You're in hospital, John. You've been in an accident and banged your head, You have been unconscious for a couple of hours. How are you felling?" It all came flooding back to John. He could see vividly in his mind's eye what had happened. "What happened to my parents?" he asked. "Don't worry about anything, John. Just concentrate on getting better." "They'd dead, aren't they? I saw them being thrown up in the air by the lorry." The nurse gave him a sad look and said, "I'll get Sister to talk to you." John saw the nurse, in her royal blue uniform with white starched cap, apron and ruffs around her short sleeved dress, royal blue belt with a silver buckle of her nursing school, talking to Sister who was dressed similarly except that she wore navy blue dress and belt and her starched white cap was of a different design as she had trained at a different nursing school. She came over and sat at John's bedside, taking one of his hands in hers. "I'm Sister Kennedy. Nurse says that you've been asking after your parents. What can you remember?" John told her about the meal in the café and them crossing the road. He said about the lorry coming so fast and his father throwing him out of the way. He told her, between sobs of grief for what he knew must be the inevitable news, of how he'd seen his parents thrown into the air by the lorry just before he banged his head. "You poor boy! Most people would never have remembered all that and it would have been a blessing for them that they hadn't. I don't know how you've managed to remember everything so clearly with your concussion, but I'm not going to lie to you. You remembered correctly. The lorry's brakes had failed and the driver just couldn't stop. Both your parents were killed int hat accident, I'm afraid, John."

As Sister expected, the tears flowed as John sobbed and sobbed both for his own loss and for his parents whom he loved dearly. Sister pulled him to her and held him tightly to her. She was too experienced to mutter the usual platitudes of 'there, there,' or 'never mind, dear.' Years of experience had told her that it very much did mind to these poor children. When John's sobs had quieted down somewhat, she asked him how he felt in himself. She encouraged him that it was all right to tell her and that she did need to know. Between sobs, John told her that his head hurt and that he ached all over. "You've had a nasty bang on your head, John, and you're badly bruised, but there's nothing broken. You've been X-rayed to make sure. I'll ask doctor to give you something for the pain." With that, she called the nurse back to sit with John and to cuddle him as he needed the care and affection at this difficult time. Sister went to speak to the doctor. She explained to him how John had remembered all of the events leading up to his parents' death. "Poor little chap. I'd hope to break that news to him when he was feeling much better. I'll come and give him some morphine. That should help with the pain and make him sleep for a bit." The doctor was as good as his word and gave John an injection of morphine into his leg. John cried a bit when he had the injection, but the staff were aware of how much anguish he was in, so let it pass without comment. Normally, they'd have tried to encourage him to 'be a big brave boy', but he had enough to cope with the loss of his parents: he was already showing what a 'big brave boy' he was.

John felt drowsy from the effects of the morphine and slowly drifted off to sleep. He woke to find that it was dark outside and the ward lights had been dimmed, and that he felt uncomfortable around his bottom and, putting a hand down there, discovered the smooth feel of rubber pants on top of nappies. A nurse saw him stirring and came over to his bed. She pulled the curtains around the bed and turned the over bed light on. "Hello, John. I'm nurse Jones and I'm one of the night nurses. How are you feeling?" "Why am I in nappies?" John wailed. "Hush, now. Don't get upset. We always put children who have been in an accident like you in nappies. You were unconscious for some time and then you've been given morphine which is a very strong drug. You're probably wet no, aren't you?" John agreed that he was and nurse said, "That's why you were put into nappies. We know from all the other boys and girls who have had accidents with concussion that they may have a little 'accident' and it's better to be in wet nappies than in a wet bed, isn't it?" John agreed that it probably was. "I'll get another nurse and we'll change you into another nappy for the rest of the night. After that, I'll give you another injection of morphine which should help you sleep. You'll probably wake up wet, but that's because of the morphine. It's not because you're a baby or anything like that! We put all children in the ward in nappies at night 'just in case'. It's ward policy!" Nurse Jones was a kindly nurse who was well aware of the dignity of young boys who were now too grown up' to wear nappies. Their mothers had toilet trained them so well that it was almost the ultimate crime to wet the bed. She had seen similar reactions so many times before. All of the children in the ward which was from children from four to eleven, wore nappies at night 'just in case'. For many, if not most, of them, the stress of being in hospital meant that they'd be wet in the morning. It may embarrass the children to be treated like babies by putting them in nappies, but it certainly prevented a lot of wet beds.

John did indeed wake up wet in the morning, long after all the other children had woken. He had been allowed to sleep in as his were special circumstances. All the other children had been changed out of their wet nappies and dry ones put in place where necessary – for the younger children and for some of the older ones whose bladder control was a little suspect. On seeing John was awake, two nurses descended upon him, wearing rubber aprons over their uniforms, and pulled the curtains around him. The covers were removed from him and he had his gown removed. Starting from his face, the nurses very gently washed him all over right down to his feet, leaving his wet nappy and rubber pants in place. The transparent amber coloured natural rubber pants were removed and the wet nappy unpinned and lifted away into a bucket. One nurse supported John while his 'nappy area' was washed clean . He had zinc and castor oil cream applied to his washed and dried skin to prevent nappy rash. Two pairs of thick terry towelling nappies were pinned on and a the rubber pants pulled back over the top. A probing finger form one of the nurses made sure that all of the nappy was inside the tight legs and waist of the rubber pants to prevent leaks. "John, we don't want you getting out of bed at the moment as you may still be suffering from the effects of the concussion. If you need to 'spend a penny', then it's all right to use your nappy. We want you to drink plenty today, so we'll come and change you when you're wet. Please don't worry about wearing a nappy. We know you're not a bay but your concussion was serious and we need to look after you. If you need to do a 'number two', just ask a nurse and one of us will come to help you. All right, sweetheart?"

A few minutes later, a nurse came over to John's bed with a tray of breakfast. "We let you sleep, John, as you needed the rest. Everyone else has had their breakfast, so it's time for you to have yours!" She put the tray on the bedside cabinet and took a large green rubber bib from the tray, tied it behind John's neck. She took a baby bottle off the tray which held orange juice and asked John to drink it, explaining that they didn't want John to sit up yet which is why he need to drink from the bottle. After he'd drunk the bottle dry, the nurse fed him some toast. She followed this up with a bottle of milk and then, after wiping his mouth and chin for him, removed the now crumb-covered bib. "I'll be back later with a bottle of water for you, John. In the meantime, try to get some more sleep." John rolled onto his side, and, without realising what he was doing, put his thumb in his mouth and sucked on it, and put his other hands between his legs, caressing the rubber pants, as he drifted back to sleep.

John was fed lunch and tea, whilst still being kept flat. He was changed at regular intervals by the nurses when he was wet. John had had a full bladder when he was awake and thought that he would find it hard to break his mother's strong conditioning about never wetting the bed (even with a nappy on!). He found, to his surprise, that it was quite easy to start the flow of urine which flooded all over his abdomen and ran down the sides of his hips until the terry towelling nappy soaked it all up to leave him felling warm and wet. Little did he know it, but the accident and the death of his parents had caused a degree of regression. The nurses were not surprised at all by this as they knew it was common following such events. Indeed, even a simple operation such as adenoid removal or a tonsillectomy was enough to cause a reversion to bed wetting in older children than John.

The next morning, he was allowed to sit up in bed for breakfast and was allowed to drink from a cup. He was still made to wear the rubber bib round his neck with its 'catch all' pocket for the crumbs. The nurse asked him if he had done his 'number twos' that day and then used other language to make sure that John had understood her question as to whether he had had a bowel movement. This was because the nurses were checking for the constipation which they were expecting from the morphine which John had received. On having confirmed by John that he hadn't, the nurse left the bib on him and went away, leaving the instruction that he was to stay sitting up and that she'd be back in a couple of minutes. She came back with a glass containing orange juice with a spoon in it and another glass of orange juice on a small tray. She stirred the 'juice' thoroughly and took the spoon out, putting it down on the tray. She said to John that she was going to hold his nose and ask him to drink the 'juice' down as quickly as possible. She held John's nose and offered him the glass. He drank it down, gagging at the oily taste. She removed her fingers from his nose and offered him the second glass of orange juice with the comforting words, "Don't worry, this is just orange juice to take the taste away!" In those days, it was not felt necessary to explain to children what the nurses were doing to them: the children were just expected to do or take whatever they were told. The nurse removed the bib and John's gown, replacing it with a pyjama top. "You can get out of bed now and play with the other children. If you need to use the toilet, just remember you've got your nappies on, so use those!" She smiled to herself as she knew that John would very soon realise what she'd given him: a very large dose of castor oil which, in two or three hours, would leave him no longer constipated, very empty and with a very messy full nappy.

She led John by the hand to the playroom at the end of the ward. Here children who were well enough to be allowed out of bed, yet not quite well enough to go home, were allowed to play under the watchful eye of a nurse who made sure that they didn't over-exert themselves and, when they needed their nappies changed, that they were returned to them main part of the ward for this to be done. The nurse who'd brought John whispered to the nurse in the playroom that John has just had a rather large dose of castor oil and that she was to watch for the successful conclusion of the treatment – John filling his nappy very comprehensively. John, who had been embarrassed at first at being taken through the ward, which was mixed sex, in just his pyjama top and his rubber pants over his nappy, was surprised to find that all except the very oldest children, were wearing nappies with rubber pants over them and a pyjama top. He didn't realise that the oldest children , who were wearing pyjama bottoms as well, apart from a couple of them, were also wearing the rubbers and nappies, but underneath their pyjama bottoms in deference to their age.

John settled down to play Dinky toys with another boy (for those who have never played with Dinky toys, they were a die cast toy made as semi scale models of cars and lorries in use in the UK at that time). Half way through the morning, a nurse came into the playroom with a tray of glasses of orange juice which the children were encouraged to drink. Some children, like John, who had been given laxatives, were given larger glasses than the rest to ensure a thorough cleansing. John had already wet his nappy: the nurse had noticed this through the transparent rubber pants, but was aware that they were thick enough to take rather more soaking than they'd had so far.

About three hours later, John realised that something strange was happening. He felt his stomach churning and gurgling inside him. He suddenly felt the greatest need to empty his bowels that he'd ever felt. He tried to hold back and started to stand up to go over to the nurse, but he was far too late. The violent contractions of his bowels responding to the effects of the powerful castor oil purgative forced a mess of oily stool into his nappy. The nurse saw his facial expressions and his obvious distress and then the brown stain appearing across the seat of his nappy. She smiled inwardly to herself as she knew that John's constipation had been resolved in a most spectacular fashion. John lost his balance as he was trying to stand when the need to expel the stool overwhelmed him. He fell back onto his bottom on the linoleum floor and grimaced as the messy stool was squashed all over his bottom and up between his legs up his front over his genitals and back up his anal cleft. John stood up and waddled over to the nurse as he was uncomfortable. He leaned over to her and whispered what had happened. She told him that she'd send him to be changed when she felt that he'd finished passing all that there was inside him to pass and that he should expect that he'd be passing some more into his nappy. As she was speaking to him, one of the other children who had also been similarly dosed with castor oil suddenly relieved herself into her nappy, blushing a bright beetroot colour as she lost self-control to her obvious embarrassment. Seeing and realising that John had had the same problem and that he hadn't been sent to be changed, she decided that she'd try to pretend that nothing had happened. Both children then spent a further hour and a half filling their nappies even fuller with stool. The children had adopted a crouch to avoid squashing the stool further into their nappies. Nurse, with a malicious glean in her eye, managed to contrive to ensure that both John and the girl ended up sitting down firmly on their bottoms whilst they continued to play.

Nurse decided that the young girl had been embarrassed enough by her loss of control caused by the powerful purgative and sent her off to be changed first. When she returned, some fifteen minutes later, she had been put in blue rubber pants over her nappy which gave her some semblance of dignity. The nurse told John to go to see the nurse sitting at the desk and say to her that he'd come to be changed. As he walked past her, she gave him a playful slap across the seat of his rubber pants, further squashing the stool across his bottom. John waddled over to the nurse at the desk and reported as he'd been told, in a rather sheepish, embarrassed voice. She smiled at him and took him by the hand. She led him to the sluice room where there was a large table covered with a rubber sheet. Putting her hands under John's armpits, she lifted him up and sat him on the table, further spreading the stool up inside his nappy. "Time for a nice clean dry nappy, John!" With that, she laid him back on the table and turned to put on rubber gloves and a rubber apron. She then removed the rubber pants and nappy and dropped them in appropriate bins under the table. She put a bowl of water beside John and both wiped and washed him until he was clean again. She applied a thick layer of zinc and castor oil cream around his nappy area before applying a thick layer of clean, dry nappies and a fresh pair of rubber pants. John, however, got another pair of the transparent rubber pants so the nurses could keep an eye on when he wet himself. When she had finished with him, she lifted him off the changing table and sent him back to play until lunchtime.

Unbeknown to John, elsewhere in the hospital there was a case conference taking place about him. A social worker was talking to the ward sister about placing John in foster case until his future could be legally settled. The social worker said to Sister that she was proposing to send John to Sister Davis. "Isn't there anyone else?" asked Sister, "You know she has some strange ways of dealing with children in her care." "Yes," replied the social worker, "but she does love the children in her care and they do seem to thrive. Don't forget, none of John's relatives will take him and I'd rather place him in foster care than in a children's home." Sister Davis was a district nurse and John was about to find out her 'strange ways' for himself. The arrangements were made for John to be placed with her that afternoon on his discharge from hospital.

That afternoon, after John had had lunch, he was changed into a clean pair of nappies and then his clothing, which had been washed, dried and mended, put on him. Sister Davis came into the ward and spoke to John. "Hello John. I'm Sister Davis and you're going to come home with me. I'll look after you until it's sorted what's going to happen to you." Being reminded that he needed care because his parents had been killed, John burst into tears. Sister Davis hugged John to her and comforted him until the sobbing had subsided. She took John by the hand and led him from the ward. She told him that she was married, but had no children of her own. She worked as a district nurse, but only during school time so she'd be home during the holidays. Her husband was an accountant for a large local company. Leaving the hospital, she led John towards a bus stop from which buses went out of the city centre. The bus came and they both climbed on. A short ride later took them to the suburbs where they got off. Five minutes walk took them to a tree- lined street with detached houses. They stopped at number 25 and Sister Davis opened the front door. She took John inside and up the stairs. There were three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs and John was taken into the smallest bedroom. To his surprise, the bed was a hospital style bed with cot sides which could be pulled up to prevent the occupant from falling out of bed. There was linoleum on the floor, a chair, bedside cabinet, wardrobe, a desk and a chest of drawers. There were pictures of aeroplanes, racing cars and trains on the wall. Sister Davis showed John that she had put away all his clothes in the wardrobe and chest of drawers. She didn't open the bottom drawer, so John, wrongly, assumed that it was empty. John was taken downstairs and shown the rooms down there and the garden.

Later that evening, Sister Davis led John upstairs to bed. She took him into the second bedroom where there was a peculiar hospital style examination couch with a rubber cover over it. There was a sink in the room and cupboards with closed solid doors. What did attract John's attention were the three hooks in the wall over the head of the couch. He wondered what they were for. Sister Davis removed his nappy and rubber pants, dropping them in nappy pails by the couch, rather as the nurse had done at the hospital. She washed and dried him, deciding that his bottom looked well enough creamed. With his lower half bare, she lifted him down and encouraged him to go to the toilet in the bathroom and also to clean his teeth. He was told to go back to 'his' bedroom when he'd done. When he came in, he saw Sister Davis opening the bottom drawer and getting out dry nappies and blue rubber pants. "But I don't need nappies at night any more. I'm not a bay and I'm better now!" John wailed. "Every one of the boys and girls I've looked after wear nappies at least at night. If you don't wet them overnight, then you can wear them the following night. I'd rather you stayed in bed at night, though, so use your nappies if you wake up at night." She then laid him on the bed, pumped it up to a convenient height and put the nappies and rubber pants on him. She removed his shirt and replaced it with a pyjama top. She turned back the top sheet and blankets and encouraged John to lie down under the covers and she tucked him up. Finally she gave him a bottle of orange drink with a baby teat on it, standing it beside his pillow, telling him that he could suck from it if he was thirsty and the teat would stop it leaking all over the bed if it was knocked over. She kissed him on his forehead, wished him a 'good night', pulled up the cot sides so John felt like he was in a cage and turned the light out as she left the room. The bed was still high in the air so John thought that perhaps he was glad that he had the cot sides to stop him falling out. He explored the bed and found that there was a rubber sheet over the mattress, a rubber drawsheet under a linen drawsheet and rubber covers on the two pillows which gave off a strong smell of rubber as he laid on them. As he was thirsty, he picked up the bottle, as he was intended to do, and started to drink from it. John thought it tasted a bit strange, but drank it down thirstily anyway. Finishing the bottle, he stood it back up beside his pillow and laid down to try to sleep. Sleep did come quickly as the doctor had prescribed a dose of chloral hydrate to help him sleep over the first few nights in his strange new home.

The next morning, just before Sister Davis came in to get him out of bed, John woke to the realisation that his nappy was very wet. He put his hand down between his crotch on the rubber pants and squeezed the nappy tightly to him. He suddenly realised that he didn't care. Yes, he felt babyish in his rubber pants and wet nappy, but he liked the feeling. Sister Davis came in and lowered one of the cot sides. She was wearing a rubber apron and, sitting on the bed, lifted John onto her lap and cuddled him, rocking him gently back and forwards. She'd brought him a bottle of milk which she gave to him, holding the bottle with the teat in his mouth so john could suck eagerly. After what the poor lamb had been through, the reversion to a younger age while he was at home with her would help to blunt the pain of the loss of is parents and she enjoyed 'mothering' her foster children anyway. She'd only take one at a time so she could give them as much love and attention as possible. When John had drunk the milk, she picked him up and carried him into the second bedroom and placed him on the couch there . She removed his wet nappies and rubber pants and then washed his nappy area thoroughly, this time applying a layer of zinc and castor oil cream which she rubbed in carefully. Lifting John off the couch, she led him over to the sink and washed him from head to foot and, leading him naked back to his bedroom, helped him to dress.

After breakfast, she walked John round the corner to his new school where the head teacher and class teacher had been warned about John's situation. John was welcomed into the school by the head teacher and taken to meet his class teacher. During the day, the other children asked him about his parents and didn't laugh at him when he started crying for his loss. He found that he liked his new friends and school and enjoyed being the centre of attention.

All went well until Friday night. That was the night when John discovered the reservations which the ward sister had about John's placement with Sister Davis, despite her similar treatment of children on her ward. John was led into the middle bedroom and laid upon the couch. This time there were strange metal poles either side of the couch with loops hanging from them. Sister Davis removed all of John's clothes and gently put his ankles in the stirrup loops so that his bottom was wide open and his knees bent back. "At the weekend, we all have a good internal cleansing, John. You'll soon get used to it. I'm going to start you off with this." She held up a child sized glycerine suppository. "I'll dip this in some water and put it into your bottom. In a few minutes, it will make you want to go to the toilet, but I want you to be a good boy and to hold it as long as possible for me before you go. Can you do that for me?" John didn't like the sound of this, but he reluctantly agreed that he'd try. She pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and , picking up the first suppository, dipped it into the water which made it slippery. Carefully she placed the rounded end against John's anal sphincter and pushed gently. "Take deep breaths for me, John," she asked. As he did so, she slipped the first suppository into his rectum, pushing it as high up as she could at the tip of her finger which was fully buried in John's backside. Before John could protest, a second one followed the first. A really thick nappy was placed under John's hips and fastened tightly around him with four nappy pins. John's legs were lowered from the stirrup loops and a pair of transparent rubber pants pulled up over his nappy. John was helped to stand as she made sure that all of the nappy was tucked behind the rubber pants. These were just like the ones John had worn in hospital and he had a bad feeling about this. "Grip your bottom as tight as possible, John, to hold on for me." John clenched buttocks tightly together whilst Sister David went into a set of drawers and pulled out a transparent rubber garment. "As I don't want you to leak in the bed, I'd like you to put this on." It had an elasticated neck, long sleeves with elasticated wrists, an elasticated waist and legs which would reach down to his knees with elastic around the knees. Sister Davis held the neck of the garment stretched whilst John stepped into it. He shivered as the touch of the cold amber rubber struck cold against his skin. It looked really strange on him as he could see himself on one of the full length mirrors in the room. Finally, Sister Davis held John's nose whilst she encouraged him to drink down a large draught of castor oil and orange juice. John started to cry at the oily taste. "I was given this in hospital," he wailed, "and I couldn't help messing myself." "Hush, John. It's all right. I know you'll mess yourself. That's fine. I want you to because I want to clear all of the poisons out of your system." John was given another glass of orange juice to wash away the oily taste still in his mouth and then encouraged to brush his teeth to rid them of the oily coating which the castor oil had left. By now, John was squirming from trying to hold on to the two suppositories which were irritating his rectum and causing him to want to have a bowel movement. "Hold on a little longer, if you can, John, so that they'll work better." With that, she picked him up and carried him into his bedroom. Sitting on his bed, she cuddled him to her so that he was overwhelmed by the smell of his rubber suit and her apron. She placed the teat of a baby bottle in his mouth and encouraged him to suck on the warm milk, laced again tonight with chloral hydrate which would soon send him into a deep sleep. As John drifted off to sleep, the little grunts he was giving in his sleep suggested that he was indeed filling his nappy. As she laid John down on his side, she placed a hand on his bottom and rubbed. Yes, he had passed stool as she spread it across his bottom.

A couple or so hours later, John half woke to the churnings of his bowels caused by the castor oil. He didn't fight it as he was too sleepy from the choral hydrate and so just let it out. Three more times he woke, passed copious amounts of stool and went back to sleep again. In the early morning, he woke for the last time that night with the grey light of dawn filtering through the window. He was aware that he was covered in sweat from the rubber garment he was wearing over his nappy and rubber pants. He sat up in bed and felt the stool between his legs spreading out up his front and back. He put his hand between his crotch and squeezed, spreading the stool up even further. He didn't care. He liked the feeling, he decided. After all, if Sister Davis had said it was all right, then who was he to argue? He laid back in bed, one hand between his legs and the other holding his thumb in his mouth, wet with sweat and both wet and sticky around the nappy region.

Sister David came into the room some time later, wearing her long rubber apron and rubber gloves. "Awake, poppet? Not too uncomfortable, I hope?" John reassured her hat things were fine. She smiled to herself as she guessed that he would rapidly come to appreciate the lack of responsibility and self control which the nappies and the purgatives implied. "Let's clean you up and start you on the next start of your treatment." She lifted him out of bed and took him to the bathroom this time. Stripping off the rubber bloomer suit, which had covered John from knee to neck and wrists, while John stood in the bath, she gave a pleasurable exclamation that his rubber pants hadn't leaked. She turned the suit inside out and hung it on a hanger. She removed his very messy nappy and rubber pants, commenting to John that she was pleased with the result. She knew that her expression of pleasure would help to break down any resistance and prior training against wetting and messing himself in this way. She wanted him to be relaxed about her treatment of him. There was a shower attachment on the bath which she used to thoroughly hose John clean. She then showered him from head to foot, soaping him well and rinsing it off. John would have protested at home that he was a big boy and could bath himself, but he found that he was enjoying the mothering which he was receiving. He relaxed and just let it happen. Sister Davis was right: it was just what he needed at this difficult time. Picking up a large white fluffy bath towel, she wrapped him in it and dried him thoroughly. She led him from the bathroom into the second bedroom and stood him beside the couch. "I'd like you to put on these special rubber pants for me, John." They were the red rubber of hospital sheeting and were the strangest garment he'd seen. There was a tube from between the legs, the legs were short like bloomers, there was an elasticated waist and no back around his buttocks. He stepped into them and was then lifted onto the couch and told to lie on his left side. Sister Davis checked the temperature of the water in the jug and in the enema can which she hung on the wall over the couch ("So that was what the hooks were for," thought John) She connected the tubing from the can up to the pre-greased colon tube which she had ready in a kidney dish. She ran a little water out of the colon tube to flush all of the air from the tubing, then, with a finger dipped in the Vaseline, lubricated John's anus with her gloved finger. She fed the end of the colon tube through the tube in the bloomers which was between his legs and then into his rectum. She opened the valve on the enema can to let the water run slowly through the tubing as she worked it further and further into John's empty colon – empty because of all the he'd had the night before. Once she was satisfied that she'd placed the tube far enough inside John's colon, she turned off the water and asked John to roll onto his back. She hooked the can onto the top hook and lifted John's legs into the stirrup loops fixed to the sides of the couch. She removed the section of couch under John's bottom, leaving his bottom hanging over a metal pan. "John, I'm going to open the tap now. Try to keep the fluid inside you until you feel really full. Then just relax and let it out. The special rubber pants you're wearing have got no back so that, when you let the water out of you, it'll go into the pan under your bottom and won't splash anywhere. All right?" John nodded as she opened the tap.

Since the colon tube was so high up in his colon, John was surprised tat so much water was going in to him and he didn't feel full. Sister Davis was topping up the enema can from the jug of warm water. Suddenly he started to feel rather full and so relaxed his sphincter muscles. The water poured out of him into the waiting pan below, directed by the rubber pants. When he felt empty again, he was encouraged to clench his sphincter to be refilled. This happened several times until Sister Davis felt that he was thoroughly washed out. She unclipped the colon tube from the enema can tubing and lowered the end into the metal container beneath John's bottom to let the remaining water drain out of him as she slowly removed the colon tube. "How was that, John?" she asked him. "That was fun," he said, "I feel really clean inside now." "Good boy!" She removed his legs from the loops and slide the rubber pants off him. She washed and dried him and lifted him off the table. John went to get dressed. Sister Davis came into the room and asked, "Shall we do that again next week, John?" "Yes please!" came his answer, "but," he blurted out, "could I take the nasty stuff during the day so I can sleep though at night?" "Of course you can, dear. I just thought you'd prefer not to wear nappies and rubber pants during the day." "I don't mind that," was John's answer.

The next Saturday morning, John was woken by Sister Davis, wearing her rubber apron and gloves as usual, and taken to the second bedroom. She removed his wet nappies and rubbers before washing him clean and creaming him thoroughly. She pinned on a really thick pile of nappies and pulled the rubber pants over the top so that John definitely bulged around his hips from the thick layers of terry toweling. This was followed by the bloomer suit and then his normal clothes on top, apart from a special pair of baggy trousers to fit over the nappies. John's mouth was dry from excitement: he was really looking forward to this. "I like to rotate my purgatives, John, so today I'm giving you Epsom Salts which works rather differently. You won't get the cramping I expect, but you'll get lots of watery bowel movements which is why you've got such a thick layer of nappies on. I'd also like you to keep drinking plenty all day, so I've put a jug of orange juice in the kitchen for you to help yourself from. How do you want your Epsom Salts? You can have it in a glass or from a baby bottle." "From the bottle, please," asked John. "I thought you might! Come here, poppet, and sit on my lap." John sat across her lap as she cuddled him and rocked him as he drank down the Epsom Salts mixed with the orange juice to try to disguise the salty flavour. John was excited to think of the effects that it would have on him later.

After breakfast of porridge and a glass of orange juice laced again with Epsom Salts to ensure a 'good result', John was allowed out into the back garden to play. He was on the swing when he felt the first gurgling which the osmotic laxative would produce. He stayed on the swing as the laxative built up the pressure inside him and he let it go flooding into his nappy. As he was sitting on the swing, he could feel the warm mess spreading up the sides of his hips, his front and his back and it was a wonderful feeling. By lunchtime, when he was changed, he was thoroughly wet and happy. In the evening, he had the colon tube just before bed and went to bed that night in an exhausted state from all the purging, but wonderfully content.

A few days later, he was visited by two ladies from Social Services. They spoke to Sister Davis and then took John into the front room with them on his own. "Can't Sister Davis be here with me?" he asked. "No, John. We need to speak to you alone. Are you happy here?" "Oh yes!" John said, "very happy!" "As your parents are dead, we need to find the best place for you. How do you feel about staying here?" "Yes, please!" came the instant reply. "Sister Davis and her husband want to adopt you as their own son. How do you feel about that?" "That would be wonderful. I'd love to have Sister Davis as my mummy and Mr. Davis as my new dad. They're ever so kind to me and love me." "Are you sure, because it won't be possible to change your mind later." I'm sure. Please let me stay here!" With that, one of the ladies left the room to convey this to Sister Davis who came into the room elated and went over to John to hug him. The social workers left, leaving the happy pair. "John, would you like to be in nappies now, to celebrate?" "Yes please, Sister!" "You can call me 'mummy' now if you like," came her reply. "Mummy, can I wear my nappies and rubbers and can you give me something to make me 'go'?" Of course, my love. What do you want? Senna, Epsom Salts or castor oil?" "Mummy, can I have the Senna and a washout afterwards?" "Of course, dearest!"

With that, John's new mummy led him upstairs to get him into his nappies and rubbers. Over the years, he still wore nappies at night and looked forward to his weekly purgatives, enemas and colon washouts. He still does!