I’ve noticed that there are quite a few of your correspondents from single parent families, and I am another, as my father died in a road accident when I was just over two years old.
My mum never remarried so it was just the two of us for pretty much my entire childhood that I remember. This rather embarrassing story comes from the mid 1970s, when I was 11 years old. I had just started at high school in the first year, and Mum had high hopes for me academically.