making me as unhappy as herself.’
There was a long pause. Maggie peeped into the room. Mam was staring at the empty fireplace. ‘I’ll not be telling your dad,’ she muttered. ‘And Alice won’t let on to anyone else. It was me she wanted to get at, her old friend.’ She leant back in the chair and her head fell to one side. ‘Oh, Paddy luv,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll really miss you.’
It was quite a few seconds before Maggie noticed that her mam was no longer breathing, and more seconds before reality dawned and she realised that her mother was dead.
Sheila O’Neill’s heart had been shockingly weak. The doctor hadn’t realised. No one had. The baby she’d been carrying turned out to be a boy, and he was dead in her womb.
Paddy O’Neill swore that once the funeral was over, he would never set foot inside a church again. He wanted no more to do with the God who had taken away his beloved wife, who’d never harmed a hair on the head of anyone in her entire life.
‘Where’s the fairness of it?’ he wailed. ‘My Sheila was a saint, a living saint.’ He cross-questioned Maggie as to what his wife had said during her last conversation on earth.
‘She talked about you and Bridie, about Ryan, the new baby, all of us,’ Maggie stammered. It tore at her heart having to invent her mother’s last words. Was it her own behaviour that had caused her mother to die? How could she ever forgive herself?
‘What else? What else?’ her father demanded, greedy to know everything, even the sound of Sheila’s very last breath.
When reminded of it, he announced that he wanted nothing to do with the by-election. He didn’t want to be a Member of Parliament without his wife at his side. ‘She was really looking forward to it,’ he claimed.
As for Maggie, she was storing up secrets: the almost wedding, the almost baby, and now knowing that these two things might well have been the cause of her mother’s death. The knowledge had literally broken Sheila’s fragile heart, and it was something her daughter would have to live with for the rest of her life.
She gave Iggy a week’s notice. ‘But I’ve got to take me mam’s place, you see,’ she told him when he said she could take as much time off as she wanted; she didn’t have to leave. ‘Someone’s got to make the meals and do the housework and look after Bridie. Me dad and our Ryan both earn decent wages; there’s no real need for mine.’
Auntie Kath was as upset as anyone that her beloved sister was dead, but the world didn’t stop turning no matter how much you had loved the person who had died. There was the serious matter of who would replace Phelim Hegarty now that her brother-in-law had turned the job down.
An emergency meeting was held and Auntie Kath was adopted as prospective parliamentary candidate for Bootle Docklands. She was well aware that many people, and not just men, didn’t approve of women meddling in politics, but she was determined to show them bloody politicians down in London a thing or two, particularly the Tory ones.
Chapter 5
Iris had never met Maggie’s mother, but she ordered flowers for the funeral; miniature daffodils and violets mingled with trailing ivy and tied with a blue satin bow.
‘Why don’t you come with me?’ Nell suggested. ‘I’m sure Maggie will appreciate it.’ Privately, she didn’t think Maggie capable of any feelings just now apart from grief, which Nell found surprising. Naturally she would be horribly upset that her mam had died, but she was the sort of person who would normally have subdued her grief and consoled her dad who had fallen apart. According to Ryan, who was holding the family together, Paddy O’Neill spent every evening in the parlour talking to his wife, who lay in her coffin with rosary beads threaded through her white fingers.
‘I never thought I’d say this, but I’ll be glad when me mam’s in her grave.’ Ryan made the Sign of the Cross in case the words sounded
There was a long pause. Maggie peeped into the room. Mam was staring at the empty fireplace. ‘I’ll not be telling your dad,’ she muttered. ‘And Alice won’t let on to anyone else. It was me she wanted to get at, her old friend.’ She leant back in the chair and her head fell to one side. ‘Oh, Paddy luv,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll really miss you.’
It was quite a few seconds before Maggie noticed that her mam was no longer breathing, and more seconds before reality dawned and she realised that her mother was dead.
Sheila O’Neill’s heart had been shockingly weak. The doctor hadn’t realised. No one had. The baby she’d been carrying turned out to be a boy, and he was dead in her womb.
Paddy O’Neill swore that once the funeral was over, he would never set foot inside a church again. He wanted no more to do with the God who had taken away his beloved wife, who’d never harmed a hair on the head of anyone in her entire life.
‘Where’s the fairness of it?’ he wailed. ‘My Sheila was a saint, a living saint.’ He cross-questioned Maggie as to what his wife had said during her last conversation on earth.
‘She talked about you and Bridie, about Ryan, the new baby, all of us,’ Maggie stammered. It tore at her heart having to invent her mother’s last words. Was it her own behaviour that had caused her mother to die? How could she ever forgive herself?
‘What else? What else?’ her father demanded, greedy to know everything, even the sound of Sheila’s very last breath.
When reminded of it, he announced that he wanted nothing to do with the by-election. He didn’t want to be a Member of Parliament without his wife at his side. ‘She was really looking forward to it,’ he claimed.
As for Maggie, she was storing up secrets: the almost wedding, the almost baby, and now knowing that these two things might well have been the cause of her mother’s death. The knowledge had literally broken Sheila’s fragile heart, and it was something her daughter would have to live with for the rest of her life.
She gave Iggy a week’s notice. ‘But I’ve got to take me mam’s place, you see,’ she told him when he said she could take as much time off as she wanted; she didn’t have to leave. ‘Someone’s got to make the meals and do the housework and look after Bridie. Me dad and our Ryan both earn decent wages; there’s no real need for mine.’
Auntie Kath was as upset as anyone that her beloved sister was dead, but the world didn’t stop turning no matter how much you had loved the person who had died. There was the serious matter of who would replace Phelim Hegarty now that her brother-in-law had turned the job down.
An emergency meeting was held and Auntie Kath was adopted as prospective parliamentary candidate for Bootle Docklands. She was well aware that many people, and not just men, didn’t approve of women meddling in politics, but she was determined to show them bloody politicians down in London a thing or two, particularly the Tory ones.
Chapter 5
Iris had never met Maggie’s mother, but she ordered flowers for the funeral; miniature daffodils and violets mingled with trailing ivy and tied with a blue satin bow.
‘Why don’t you come with me?’ Nell suggested. ‘I’m sure Maggie will appreciate it.’ Privately, she didn’t think Maggie capable of any feelings just now apart from grief, which Nell found surprising. Naturally she would be horribly upset that her mam had died, but she was the sort of person who would normally have subdued her grief and consoled her dad who had fallen apart. According to Ryan, who was holding the family together, Paddy O’Neill spent every evening in the parlour talking to his wife, who lay in her coffin with rosary beads threaded through her white fingers.
‘I never thought I’d say this, but I’ll be glad when me mam’s in her grave.’ Ryan made the Sign of the Cross in case the words sounded
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