Patrick Humphreys was born in 1945 as the only child born to Mollie and Darlow Humphreys. The family home was located in Frome, Somerset (a small town in the south of England). Both parents were Academics: Mollie ran the History Department at Newton Park College and Darlow directed the Department of Education at the University of Bristol. As both parents were employed away from home most days, Patrick was looked after at home by a young live-in nanny and by her mother (Patrick’s godmother, who lived nearby).
Each year, at Darlow’s insistence, Darlow and Mollie took a holiday together from their home in Frome in together as a couple. During that time, Patrick was left behind at home under the care of his live-in Nanny.
When Patrick was four years old, he moved with parents to a house in Bath, a city i that was nearer to where his parents were employed. Patrick’s Nanny and Godmother remained in Frome. Darlow employed a part-time live-in au-pair to look after Patrick when Mollie and Darlow were not at home . On each school day, the live-in au-pair would collect Patrick from his school at 3pm and care for him at home until his parents arrived in the evening. Given this background, Patrick's opportunities to meet and form a relationship with a childhood anam cara were quite restricted.
In 1951, when Patrick Humphreys was 6 years old, his mother, Mollie became concerned about finding a context[ wherein Patrick could form a relationship with a childhood Anam Cara , but did not know how to solve it. She tried adopting a “rational choice” approach: evaluating various "alternative care solutions for Patrick" options, but none seemed to particularly satisfactory. This left her feeling "adrift in a sea of uncertainty" about would be a good solution for her family.
So, Mollie contacted her own lifelong Anam Cara (Jymmie Richards) and asked her about "what should I do"? Jymmie told her:
"You and Darlow are academics with relatively long summer holidays. Recently, you have spent 3 weeks each summer on travelling to Adult-centered resorts where you enjoyed walking, rest and recreation activities together, but you left Patrick at home at this time. Perhaps in future you should take your 'three-weeks-away summer holiday' each year as a family holiday with Patrick that would provide the opportunity for Patrick to find and develop a relationship with his own childhood soul friend. Then, you, Darlow and Patrick could enjoy living together in a unified world, receiving positive affirmation and restoring your own self-love.
Mollie said "that seems wonderful but I do not know I could actually arrange this in practice".
Jymmie then told her:
"Well, I have a practical idea for you. I know of a small guest house, called Sunny Ridge near where I live in Devon, run by the Brewster family, it is located close to Bantham, a lovely secluded place edged by low cliffs with tiny coves that provide shelter bad weather. The coves lie behind a shallow sandy beach with pools and rocky outcrops appearing as the tide goes out. Sunny Ridge has a very loyal clientele, with families from many parts of England returning there summer after summer and establishing an informal community on Bantham beach where these families form ad-hoc groups together in various combinations and eat picnic lunches provided by Mrs Brewster. If you were to book your three-week summer holiday at Sunny Ridge, you would gain a very good opportunity to create your family holiday in association with the other families from Sunny Ridge who picnic there."
AnamCaras Jymmiie & Mollie, Devon, 1935. The Brewster Family in Sunny Ridge's garden, Devon 1951
So, Mollie, Darlow and Patrick Humphreys secured a 3-week booking at Sunny Ridge in July1952. Like the other families staying at Sunny Ridge they spent much of their time together.as a family/on Bantham Beach. There Patrick met Nancy Baron, (age7) who had travelled to Sunny Ridge with her parents (George and Barbara) and elder sister Rosalind. (age 10) who had travelled from their home in Newcastle-under-Lyme Staffordshire. Patrick was very happy to play with Nancy and to develop affection for her, (see picture 1, below).
As a result, the Humphreys and Baron families arranged that both families would stay at Sunny Ridge for the same 3-week period in July 1953., so that they could be together at Bantham where they could mix in various combinations, effectively implementing a holding space for their children’s activities. In Picture 2, below, Barbara Baron is acting as the agent creating and maintaining a holding space in accord with Winnicott’s notion of a "safe space that allows an individual to test autonomy while being psychologically held" (Winnicott, 2005, Bahn, 2022).
In January 1954 Darlow decided that he wanted to have a summer holiday with Mollie and Patrick in Switzerland rather than the UK. But he arranged with the Baron Family that the two families would still meet together at Sunny rRdge for three weeks in July 1955. Then, as they had in July1953, the families staying at Sunny lodge spent much of their time at Bantham Beach where the parents, in various combinations, acted as "holding-space agents" for the families' children.
But Patrick and Nancy, while remaining within the holding environment that their parents created maintained were now 10 years old and sought more independence for developing anam-cara-related activities, while their parents shared the holding space agent tasks: involving safeguarding and observation, without invasion, direction of or control (see picture 3, below). Some of Patrick, Nancy and Rosalind's anam-cara-related activities are shown below in pictures 4-6, below (Patrick Humphreys with his anam cara Nancy Baron and her sister Rosalind playfully challenging the waves at Bantham,), 5( Patrick offering Nancy and Rosalind a ride in the sand-boat that he had built for them) and 6(Patrick and his anam cara Nancy confront the waves at Bantham beach with their paddle boards):
