by Lorna Byrne
The next day I told Mum I wanted Pauline as my bridesmaid, even though I had not asked her yet.Mum seemed surprised and suggested that my brother Barry should be the best man. That evening Joe and I talked about our wedding. Joe knew I was unhappy about it; he wanted to have words with Mum and Da but I said, 'No, I don't want our wedding to cost my parents much money, if possible.' And we were saving hard for a home so we didn't want to spend much money ourselves.
Joe gave me a big hug and said, 'Let's make arrangements to meet the parish priest and set a date for our wedding.'
Joe's family was completely different from mine, as far as our wedding was concerned. Joe's mum asked me which friends I was going to invite and I told her that I would love to ask Pauline, Valerie and Mary from work, but I didn't know what they would think about me having the wedding reception in the house. I told her, 'Since I started work in the department store, several girls have got married and they all have had their receptions in hotels. Mum is set on having it in the house, and I don't want to hurt her by telling her that I am disappointed at that idea. Joe and I have agreed we don't want our wedding to cost my parents much money, if possible.'
Joe's mum replied, 'Don't worry, we will all chip in.'
Then everything seemed to begin to fall into place. A few weeks later, in the canteen at work having lunch with Valerie and Mary, they asked me had I set a date for the wedding and I told them, 'Yes, the 18th of August, and you're invited.'
They were delighted and asked where the reception was going to be held. I told them it wasn't decided yet; I didn't want to tell them that it was going to be at my house.
Later that day I asked Pauline to be my bridesmaid: she said it would be an honour. I told her that Joe's sister Barbara would make her dress.
Chapter Twelve
Country cottage
I started to encourage Joe to look for a job somewhere else, to be independent. I said that we needed to stand on our own two feet. 'Talk to Da. I know he will give you a good reference.'
Joe got another job, no problem, this time working in CIE (the Irish public transport company). With the new job, Joe could not pick me up after work as often as he used to, so most evenings I got the bus home. One particular evening, as I walked round to the back entrance of the house, I knew something was going to happen.
I noticed Da's newspaper The Irish Press on the dining room table.When the angels asked me to open it I was reluctant, but I pulled out a chair, sat down at the table and started to turn the pages. My hands were trembling; I seemed to be moving in slow motion. I was afraid the angels were going to highlight something in the paper which would be distressing.
'Don't be afraid, Lorna,' my angels said, 'just turn the pages and we'll tell you when to stop.'
I was turning the pages slowly, one at a time. I could feel my Angel Hosus's hand on my shoulder.
'Now,' he whispered in my ear, 'look at the houses for sale.'
I looked, there were hundreds of houses for sale and I couldn't make sense of anything on the page, everything was upside down and turned around. I looked up from the paper to see a crowd of angels sitting around the table.What a sight! It made me smile.
'Hello,' said Angel Elijah, sitting directly opposite me. He reached out for the paper and the tips of his fingers touched the page. It all immediately became clear. 'Look now, Lorna,' he said. I could see the words 'Cottage for sale in Maynooth'.
'Lorna, a little cottage with a big garden,' said Elijah, 'It's perfect for you and Joe. Read on!'
It was a tiny ad with only three lines. I read on: 'For sale, by auction, and a telephone number'.
'Now, Lorna, put a circle around the advertisement and tear out the page,' Elijah said. I did, and put the page in my pocket. 'Show the advertisement to your Da when you are ready,' Elijah said, 'he will be able to help.'
There were tears in my eyes, I was so happy. Angel Elijah stood up, reached forward and, with the tips of his fingers, touched my tears. 'Tears of happiness,' he said. Then the angels were gone.
I showed Joe the advertisement for the cottage in Maynooth the following day, as we walked along the canal.
'I'll talk to Da when he gets home from fishing this evening,' I said.
I folded up the paper and put it back in my bag. Later that evening, when Joe had gone, Da got home from fishing. He put all his fishing gear on the floor and proudly took two large, fresh, pink, river trout, one at a time out of the fishing bag and laid them on the kitchen table. Mum was delighted. When Da had finished tidying away all his fishing gear, he sat down in his usual place.
'Da,' I said, 'I saw an advertisement in the paper for a cottage in Maynooth. It is going up for auction. How do you go about those things?'
He looked at me quite surprised; he probably thought I would have no notion of looking for a house. I didn't know what to think of the look on my Da's face but, without any hesitation, he said, 'Show me the paper.'
I took the paper out of my bag and laid it in front of him on the little table. Da asked where the ad was.
'I have circled it with a black pen. Look, there it is, Da, on the bottom of the page on the right-hand side.'
Da looked up at me again with a surprised look on his face – I was standing and he was sitting – and he read it very carefully before he said anything to me. Then, with a smile on his face, he said, 'Well done' and then asked, 'Does Joe know about the ad for the cottage?'
'Yes,' I said, 'when I was with Joe today, I showed him the paper. We are both excited, but we don't know how to go about this.'
'First things first: you'll have to get a loan,' Da said.
'Joe and I have money in the bank – should we go there?' I asked.
'Yes,' he replied, 'and there are other places you could try, such as the Council, for a housing loan, which would be cheaper than the bank. Leave the auction to me, I'll ring about that.'
'Thanks, Da,' I said. I was delighted Da was helping us, and I was very excited at the possibility of buying the cottage.
The next day I was off work and I walked down to the telephone kiosk and rang the local council and told them I was inquiring about a loan for a young married couple. I said we were not married yet, but we would be. The girl said she would send out the forms. I thanked her and hung up. Next thing, I rang Da and he told me he had enquired about the auction. It was in two days' time, so if we were interested we needed to go and see the cottage as soon as possible. He suggested that evening.
I left a message at Joe's work for him to come straight to Leixlip. I was so excited, I ran home to the house and told Mum what Da said. 'Don't get your hopes up too high,' she said. 'It's not that easy to get a loan, and you and Joe don't have much money.'
Joe and Da arrived at the house within five minutes of each other that evening. Da said there was no time for dinner as the power in the cottage was not on and we needed to look at it while there was daylight.
We all got into Da's car, Mum as well, and drove to the cottage; it was about a fifteen-minute drive.
When we pulled up alongside the little cottage we could hardly see it, as the hedge was so tall. The gate was locked and Da called into the next-door neighbour, as the auctioneer had told him to, and got the keys. Da opened the gates and handed the keys to Joe. The garden was big, all overgrown – enormously overgrown. We walked up the path to the little cottage. Joe put the key in the door and turned the lock. As he opened the door, a horrible stale smell hit us; it was musty and damp, clearly nobody had lived there for quite some time. The cottage was tiny, but Joe and I did not mind that, if only we could buy it.
As we walked around the cottage, Joe and I told Da that we were concerned about the auction – what would happen if we succeeded in getting the cottage, wouldn't the auctioneers want a deposit? Did we need to take cash out of the bank in advance, as we did not have a chequebook? Da said that if everything went well, he would pay the deposit on the day and we could pay him back later. Every so often I would walk back into on
e of the little rooms on my own, in order to talk to the angels in silence about all of the things on my mind.
As I walked through the rooms with Joe, Mum and Da, the angels kept pulling my hair. Mum asked why I was putting my hands up to my head all the time. Was I making sure there were no cobwebs in my hair? I smiled to myself at the question.
We were inside the cottage for only a few minutes, then we left and Joe pulled the door closed and put the key through the letterbox next door. While driving home in the car Mum said, 'It is in a terrible condition.'
Da glanced at Mum and then asked us were we still interested in the cottage. The two of us said 'Yes' together.
That Wednesday morning, at about nine, I left home with my parents and we picked up Joe. Da stopped outside Joe's house and said to me, 'You go and knock on the door.' Joe opened the door, came over to the car and asked my parents if they would come in for a minute to meet his Mum. They declined. Nevertheless, I went to her. She wished us the best of luck and said, 'Another time I'll meet your Mum. We will invite your parents for dinner some Sunday.' Joe's mum was dying to meet my parents. She waved goodbye to us from the door as we drove off.
I sat holding Joe's hand in the car.We never said a word; we were so anxious and I was constantly praying. Before I knew it, Da was parking the car.
The auction was taking place in an old hotel.We were early, so we sat in the hotel lounge to have some tea and relax a little. I recognised a group of the people sitting in the lounge; I knew them as customers at the garage: their name was Murphy and they were builders. Da got up from the table and walked over to them. I watched Da shaking hands and talking to them. They bought him a drink and there seemed to be great conversation and laughter. Da turned around and gave me a smile. From the look on his face, I knew everything was going well.
I asked Joe what time it was; it was 10.45 and the auction was at 11. Just then, Da came back to the table. We were all dying to hear how he got on. Da asked if we wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first.
'Good news, please!' I said.
'A number of years ago, when there was a petrol strike, I did the Murphys a favour by making sure they didn't go short of diesel or petrol,' Da said. 'Now it's their turn to do me a favour. I had a good chat with them and told them that you both had your heart set on buying this cottage.'
None of us had realised that there was land for sale as well as the cottage; the Murphys' main interest at the auction was in the land. They wanted the cottage as well, which was up the lane, to use for offices and parking trucks but, after talking with Da, they agreed not to go after the cottage themselves and to do all they could to help us get it.
People started to leave the lounge and walk across the hall to the room where the auction was being held. The room wasn't very bright; there were lots of chairs in rows and a desk and chair at the top of the room. There were maybe about twenty people there for the auction. We sat in a row halfway down on the right-hand side, and the Murphys were on the left. There were several lots sold before they got to the cottage; one of them was the land up the road, which the Murphys bought.
Eventually, it felt like forever, it came to the cottage, which was the last lot. The bidding started and a woman put her hand up and said a price; Da put his hand up and made a higher bid, then the Murphys named a price; then my Da, and it went on like that for a little while. The woman gave up and stopped bidding. Da made a bid and the Murphys made one more but then stopped. '£2,500,' my Da said, and there were no further bids. When the auctioneer said 'SOLD!' I felt I could breathe again.
The auctioneer indicated to Da to come up to him and Da turned around to Joe and me, saying: 'You two had better come up as well, seeing as it's you who are buying the cottage.'
The auctioneer asked for Da's name and Da told him with pride that he was only doing the bidding, that it was Joe and I who were the buyers. He took our names and looked for the deposit. Without hesitation, Da said he was taking care of that.
I remember looking at Da as he took out his chequebook – at that time a 10 per cent deposit of £250 was a huge amount of money to me. I felt so much love and affection for my Da as I watched him writing out the cheque; I was delighted that he would do this for us and I felt like hugging him.
Da and Mum drove us back to Joe's mother's house. When we got there his mum was standing at the railings in the garden, talking to a neighbour. Again, Joe invited Mum and Da in for a cup of tea; again, my parents declined the invitation. We got out of the car as Joe's mum reached the gate. My parents waved goodbye and drove away. We told Joe's mum the great news straightaway.
'Let's go inside first,' she said, 'tell me the whole story over a cup of tea: I want to hear every detail and I have just baked some apple tarts.'
We went into the kitchen and Joe's mum put the kettle on. There were already cups and saucers, milk, sugar and apple tarts on the table. As soon as the tea was ready, the three of us sat at the kitchen table. Joe's mum was so eager to hear every detail that the conversation went on for some time. There was always great activity in that house, with family coming and going. They all wanted to hear the good news about the cottage. Some of the family said, 'Maynooth – it is so far away. We will never get familiar with the idea that you will be living down in the country.' I laughed and said,
'You would think we were moving a million miles away, instead of about twenty-five miles.'
Joe's mum asked, 'When can I go down and help you to clean out the cottage?'
Joe looked at me and I said, 'The weekend after next is my long weekend off.' Joe said he was off that Saturday as well, so we agreed to meet at the cottage on that Saturday morning. Shortly afterwards Joe brought me home. We were both very excited about everything that happened that day.
A few days after buying the cottage, Joe and I decided to walk to Maynooth from Leixlip and start work on cleaning it up. We were very excited and when we arrived, the gate was open.We searched for the key and it took us some time to find it. Eventually, Joe found it under a stone at the far end of the cottage.
Our new next-door neighbours must have heard us, as a lady came to the gate and shouted, 'Hello there, I'm from next door.'
'Hello,' I called as I went towards the gate, 'I'm Lorna, and we're hoping to live here after we get married in six months' time.'
'That's absolutely wonderful.' She said with a big smile, 'It will be great to have neighbours. I'm Elizabeth.'
I invited Elizabeth in and we walked up the completely overgrown drive and turned to the right along the cottage wall to the main door. Joe was standing there and I introduced him as my fiancé. She was delighted to meet him.
'You look like a lovely couple!' she said.
I invited Elizabeth in to see the house and Joe turned the key. We continued talking as we went in.
'I dread the thought of you seeing how bad the inside of the cottage is,' Elizabeth said. 'It has been empty for such a long time now. The old lady who lived here, Mrs Costello, died a long time ago.'
'That's all right, Elizabeth,' I said as we looked around the rooms.
'We'll get it looking all right in no time,' Joe said. 'Lots of scrubbing, strip the wallpaper off the walls, get the lino off the floor and get the old furniture out.' Joe looked around. 'Maybe we can save some of the furniture – the kitchen table looks good and perhaps those armchairs and the chest of drawers.'
The truth is we had no furniture, and very little money to buy any. We were going to be dependent on what we could salvage and what old furniture people gave us.
'They'll clean up well and look nearly like new,' Elizabeth said. 'Please, God, my husband will be able to give you a hand doing some of the heavy work.'
Before Joe and I could say a word, she rushed out the door and was gone to find him. We laughed. She was a lovely lady, a little round lady – that's how I'd describe her. She had a beautiful smile and the energy I could see around her held a lot of love and care. She was the salt of the earth.
/> In no time at all she was back with a tall skinny man with a very pale complexion and deep lines etched on his face – it was a face full of character. 'Hello! How are ye?' he said.
'This is my husband, John,' Elizabeth said, as she introduced us and explained that we were getting married shortly and would then be moving in.
'Well, Joe, you've a hell of a lot of work to do here,' John said. 'An awful lot of work!'
'Sure – you're right,' Joe said. 'Let's go around the back and have a look at the sheds.'
The two of them went out the door and left Elizabeth and I in the main room. It was quite small, with a fireplace.We went into the bedroom and had a good look around in there. The place stank.
'God, look at the curtains. They're mangy,' I said. 'They are in a terrible state and we don't have money for new curtains.'
'Listen, Lorna, don't worry,' Elizabeth replied, 'I'll take those curtains down during the week. I have nothing to do at the moment, and I'll wash them.'
I couldn't believe it, I said, 'God, Elizabeth it's an awful lot of curtains to wash.'
'I'll wash and iron them and I'll come in and put them back up on the windows – and while I'm doing that I'll get John to clean the windows.'
We had a bedroom, a little front room, a little kitchen and another room, which one could use for a bedroom, but there was no toilet or bathroom.
'The kitchen is a good size for a young family starting out,' said Elizabeth, 'but you'd better turn that little bedroom into a bathroom because you'll need one. You'll probably have children.'
'Of course we will.' I said with certainty, after all, the Angel Elijah had told me so. 'But the outdoor loo will have to do for now. I wonder what sort of condition it is in.'
We went around the back of the house to have a look. It was completely wild around there; we could hardly see anything because the hedge was completely overgrown. There were also grass, weeds, nettles and stinging brambles that came up above my waist everywhere. We fought our way over to where she said the loo was.