Monty Don struggled to hold back tears as he opened up about a horrific car accident his twin sister Alison was involved in during their teens, which left her gravely injured and given the last rites. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Monty Don described how he and Alison were inseparable as children, barely ever apart for the first six years. He said they were always in the same class at primary school, slept in the same room, shared the same bath, and did everything together.
However, they drifted apart as they grew older, with Monty later sent away to boarding school. In the mid-1970s, Monty received a telegram from his parents while on an extended gap year in the south of France. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, he described the message as saying to ring home because Alison had an accident, noting that such a telegram would only have been sent in life-changing circumstances.
We grew up together completely for the first six years, barely ever apart.
He rushed to his sister's bedside at Stoke Mandeville hospital. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Monty Don described Alison as blinded and made tetraplegic, with her lungs coated like a bag of cement, and she was given the last rites. At the hospital, he would lie under Alison's bed and talk to her, tell her jokes, about the dogs, and the garden, then go out and weep.
Shortly after Alison's accident, their mother suffered a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital wing. Monty had to cook for his father, who was furious because that was the only way he could express emotion, and he wouldn't eat anything his mother hadn't cooked. The exact cause of the car accident, Alison's current condition, and the specific year it occurred remain unknown.
We were always in the same class at primary school... we slept in the same room, we shared the same bath, we did everything together.
It just said, 'Ring home, Alison, accident.'
She was blinded and made tetraplegic, and her lungs... a bag of cement, but and coated her lungs. She was given the last rites.
I would lie under her bed and talk to her, and she was blind, and sort of nuts and bolts on her head, and all that sort of thing, and then go out and weep, and then go back and tell her jokes, and tell her about the dogs, and tell her about the garden.