THE bed-time story that Dudley single mum Wendy Willis made up for her son has come alive – in the shape of a beautifully illustrated children’s book.

It’s now the bedtime reading for Wendy’s grandson and it also serves as reinforcing Wendy’s message in life – never give up.

For the book, The Porter Family, finally realizes the dream that Wendy refused to give up on over 30 years.

Wendy made up her tale of the Porter family when son Mark was two years old.

It’s a tale of family and the mother’s refusal to give up on her dream of playing a musical instrument like everyone else in the family – Dad, son and daughter.

She honed it over a week and soon it was the story young Mark demanded to hear every night. He even used to correct his mum when she got previous details wrong.

Flash forward 35 or so years and Mark now has his own family in Kingswinford, with a son and daughter, George and Jessica.

Wendy, 58, had always dreamed of her story becoming an illustrated book, and Mark and Wendy’s friend Julia Farrell, a poet, encouraged her to do it.

The book was written about three years ago but Wendy needed an illustrator, and finally found one in Charlotte Smith, from Walsall.

The Porter Family is now self-published and bedtime reading for George as the story with the message ‘never give up on your dreams’ passes down the generations.

It’s available online via Amazon or Waterstones, or Wendy can provide a signed copy if you email her at Wendy.willis@Sky.com. It costs £8.99