Finishing Touches

by Patricia Scanlan

  Of course, Barbara had never been the most domestic of girls, Nora had to admit. Now she was going so far as brazenly writing in her column that a ‘housewife’ she would never be! In Nora’s eyes this was nothing to brag about.

  Irene would love to be a housewife. She’d love to be married and have children of her own and not have to go out to work. Maybe on this trip to the USA, she’d find a nice man and settle down. Nora dearly hoped so. She would like to see her youngest daughter taken care of.

  For Cassie she had no fears. Cassie would cope with anything that came her way, although it would be nice to see her married. She was thirty next year, getting on a bit, especially if she wanted to have children. But you couldn’t rush these things. If they happened they happened and since Robbie Cassie showed no signs of wanting to settle down with anybody.

  God, she wished this pain would go away. Her chest was getting very tight, as if there were a heavy band around it. She was definitely never eating brown bread and bananas again, after this dose of indigestion. Nora sat down in Jack’s chair. Irene would be in soon. She’d get her to go to the chemist and buy some antacid tablets. In the meantime she’d just sit down for a while and rest. Time enough to do the Christmas cakes later. All of a sudden the pain got worse. With a little gasp, Nora slumped over in her chair just as Irene put her key in the front door.

  Thirty-Five

  ‘When did she have it?’ After hearing the news John had just told her on the telephone, Cassie was shocked and terribly anxious about her mother.

  ‘Calm down now, Cassie,’ John said reassuringly. ‘She had a mild heart attack earlier this evening. She’s in hospital and she’s under observation.’

  ‘I’ll get the first flight home I can. It will probably be tomorrow, though.’

  ‘Look, don’t be worrying, Cassie. She’s sedated now, asleep a lot of the time, so even if you were here she wouldn’t be very aware of it. Ring me tomorrow and tell me what time your flight gets in. Karen or I will collect you from the airport.’

  ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then,’ Cassie said, hanging up the phone. Her poor mother. Nora had never been in hospital in her life, not even to have her babies. She had all her children at home. She’d hate it!

  Nora looked very pale and grey when Cassie finally arrived at the hospital, but her eyes lit up when she saw Cassie and she gave her daughter’s hand a squeeze. ‘There was no need for you to come home, pet. It was just a bad attack of indigestion. I’ll be fine. There’s no need for me to be in this place at all. Tell them I want to go home.’

  ‘Now, Mam, just do what the doctors tell you,’ Cassie warned her mother. The doctors confirmed that Nora had suffered a heart attack and that she would have to lose weight and take more exercise. Cassie knew Nora was going to find the former very difficult. Her mother had a terrible sweet tooth and was always baking tarts, scones and cream sponges, most of which she ended up eating because Irene and she were the only ones at home.

  She was hospitalized for eight days and Cassie took three weeks’ special leave to be with her but she felt that Nora would need a little more time to recuperate. Irene was all for resigning her job and looking after her mother, but the heart specialist was horrified when he heard this plan.

  ‘Your mother will make an excellent recovery as there was very little damage to the heart muscles. Resigning is much too drastic a step to take,’ he said firmly to Cassie. ‘Tell your sister to take some leave for a fortnight or so, that’s all she’ll need. I insist you don’t treat your mother like an invalid because she isn’t one. She’s responding very well to treatment.’

  ‘I can’t take leave,’ wailed Irene. ‘I haven’t got any holidays left, and if I take any more sick-leave I’ll end up on half-pay. Why can’t I just resign and go on the dole? I’ll be going to America in the spring, anyway.’

  ‘Look, Irene, if Mam thought you’d resigned the job because of her she’d be awfully upset. I really think you should hang on!’ Cassie said firmly.

  ‘Well, I think it’s a good idea,’ interjected Barbara, who was party to the conversation. ‘I certainly can’t look after her. I’ve got my hands full with the baby.’

  ‘Nobody is asking you to, Barbara,’ Cassie said shortly, irked by her sister’s attitude. Honestly, you’d think she was being asked to make a huge sacrifice.

  ‘Well, Karen has offered to come in every day for a few hours and cook Mam’s dinner. We’d have her to stay with us if that were possible but I don’t think the mobile would be such a great place in the winter,’ John said. ‘She’s begged me not to let her be sent to a nursing home. She really hates hospitals, God love her.’

  ‘I can’t take any more unpaid leave,’ said Cassie. ‘I’ve got a mortgage to pay at the end of the month. I wonder would Mam come and stay with me for a while?’

  ‘Perfect idea!’ Barbara said with satisfaction and Cassie couldn’t help but be amused. Her sister’s selfishness was mind-boggling.

  ‘I don’t want to be a nuisance to you, pet. Sure I’ll be fine at home,’ Nora exclaimed when she heard Cassie’s proposal.

  ‘Ah come on, Mam, we’ll have a bit of crack and you’ve never seen the house. I know you’ll love it,’ Cassie wheedled.

  ‘And what about Christmas? I haven’t a thing done. And what about Irene? She can’t stay here on her own.’

  ‘For goodness sake, Mam, Irene’s not a baby. She’s a grown woman. And don’t worry about Christmas! You can spend Christmas with me and Irene can fly over when she gets her holidays,’ Cassie said firmly. ‘Please, Mam, I’d love to have you.’

  ‘All right then, Cassie, as long as I won’t be putting you out!’ Nora agreed.

  Nora loved Cassie’s house and her guest-bedroom decorated in restful greens and cheerful Laura Ashley prints. Nora thought the matching curtains and bedspread so very fetching that Cassie told her that for her Christmas present, she’d buy her a set for her own room in Port Mahon.

  Mindful of the doctor’s advice, Cassie kept a sharp eye on her mother’s diet and cooked only the healthiest of meals, although as a treat she took her to What’s Cooking once a week and let her have a gooey dessert. Once Nora got back on her feet, they went walking along the prom every evening unless it were raining. Cassie felt a huge sense of satisfaction as she saw the colour return to her mother’s cheeks. Every day before she went to work, she gave Nora her breakfast in bed and brought her a daily paper. She left a light lunch prepared for her in the fridge, and then when she came home, she cooked dinner. At the weekend she drove her mother all around the Wirral and brought her to Chester, Birkenhead and Liverpool to do her Christmas shopping.

  Although her social life was dramatically curtailed, Cassie did not begrudge the time spent with her mother. She liked giving her little treats, Nora was so appreciative of everything Cassie did for her and it was nice showing her around the places that she had grown to love. Nora enjoyed going down Banks Road to do a bit of shopping. There was a hardware store there that she loved browsing in. Then she would go down into West Kirby itself and into the bookshop by the station or over to Boots or to the flowershops. Cassie was glad she had started going out on her own. Her mother had got terribly nervous as she got older and she was petrified she was going to get lost. Cassie had photocopied a map from the Wirral A-Z atlas and marked Nora’s route in red biro for her and that had eased her mother’s fears somewhat.

  One evening Cassie arrived home from work to find a terrible smell of burning. Nora was out in the kitchen, almost in tears.

  ‘I’m awfully sorry, Cassie. I put on a stew for the dinner and I forgot all about it. I’m afraid the saucepan’s burnt.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Mam!’ laughed Cassie. ‘I’m always doing the same thing myself.’

  ‘I wanted to have a nice dinner ready for you as a treat,’ Nora said in disgust.

  ‘Ah come on, we’ll go out on the town,’ Cassie decided cheerfully, giving her woebegone mother a hug.

  Christmas came
and went. Nora was delighted to see Irene and the three of them had a jolly little Christmas together but she was sad watching her daughter leave to go home. She told Cassie that she felt much better and that she missed Port Mahon and wanted to go home soon. Cassie persuaded her to stay until January was over but she could see that Nora was fine again and she was fretting and looking forward to going back.

  The night before she left, as they sat watching News at Ten, Nora turned to her daughter. ‘Cassie, you’ve been very good to me recently and always have been, and I’ll never forget you for it.’ She leant over and gave Cassie a hug.

  Cassie hugged her back. ‘Don’t mention it, Mam. It was nothing!’

  ‘Oh it was, dear. I know you’ve not been able to do the things you would usually do because of me. But, Cassie, I was so glad to get out of that hospital and I dreaded the thought of going to a nursing home. Those places put the fear of God in me,’ Nora confided. ‘I hope to God I never have to have any truck with them again. All those tubes and machines and things. I was afraid of my life.’ She seemed to get very agitated at the memory. Taking her daughter’s hand she stared at Cassie. ‘Promise me, Cassie, if anything ever happens to me you’ll never put me in one of those nursing-home places. I want to die in my own bed.’

  ‘You’re not going to die, for heaven’s sake, Mam,’ Cassie laughed.

  ‘Please, Cassie, promise me,’ Nora urged her daughter.

  ‘Of course, I promise, Mam. Now would you not be worrying about things like that!’ Cassie said gently.

  ‘It’s something we all have to face some time, pet,’ Nora sighed.

  ‘I know, Mam, but don’t be worrying about it. You’re not going to end up anywhere you don’t want to be,’ Cassie reassured her.

  Nora smiled at Cassie. ‘You’re the best daughter a mother could have, and these past two months you’ve done more than anybody has a right to expect.’

  Cassie looked at the white-haired woman at her side. The heart attack had taken its toll and she looked her age, although she seemed far better than she had done two months before. Cassie realized with a sharp sense of shock that her mother was getting old. It was a dismal thought and she banished it quickly from her mind. Leaning over, she held Nora close. ‘Mam, it was a pleasure to have you here and you’re very welcome to anything I did for you because I love you very much.’

  ‘And I love you, dear,’ Nora said, with a smile of pleasure.

  It was great to be home, Nora smiled to herself, turning her face up to the watery light of an early February sun. It had been a mild winter and already the crocuses were beginning to burst out of the ground and, if she weren’t very much mistaken, the buds were beginning to appear on the cherry-blossom trees.

  Today she was going to perform a very important task. She had been thinking about it lately, since those funny little episodes began. She’d been having them for a long time now and it was very frustrating. Something was not quite right; she couldn’t put her finger on it, but she just knew. The heart attack hadn’t helped either. But it had helped her make up her mind about what she was going to do, and the sooner she did it the better. Although she loved all her children, and Irene, her baby, a little bit more than the others, Nora knew that it was Cassie she would always turn to in her hour of need. She realized that it wasn’t very fair always to expect Cassie to come to her aid but, in all honesty, she knew she couldn’t turn to Barbara. It pained her to admit it but her second youngest daughter had a woeful self-centred streak that had not disappeared as she had got older.

  As for Irene, poor lovey, she just wasn’t able for hassle. She had gone into hysterics when Nora had the heart attack and the doctor had to give her something to calm her down. Irene would always fall to pieces in a crisis.

  No, it was Cassie who would cope as always and that was why Nora was taking the step she was taking. She had put on her best suit, the one Cassie had bought her in Liverpool. She went out the gate and headed up the town.

  Cassie sat beside her mother at midnight Mass. It was Easter and the Easter Vigil was drawing to a close. Nora had always loved the Easter Vigil but this year she was uncharacteristically down in herself. In fact Cassie was quite worried about her. She seemed almost to be in a world of her own and was very absent-minded. In spite of her brave words, she had taken Irene’s going very badly. Irene had left for Washington the day after Saint Patrick’s Day and her mother was missing her sorely.

  Cassie didn’t seem to be able to cheer her mother up at all. Nora hadn’t even noticed that she had given the house a hell of a spring-cleaning, something that was badly needed. She had never known her mother to be sloppy about her housekeeping, but under the sink in the bathroom and the pipes behind the toilet-bowl were in need of a good clean. And so was the fridge; in fact there was a smell from it, and on further investigation Cassie had discovered two sausages that were green. And what was her mother doing buying all those teabags? She had half a dozen boxes in the cupboard. When Cassie asked her about it, Nora had stared at her blankly. ‘What teabags are you talking about, pet? I don’t remember buying any.’

  ‘Mam, I was just thinking, why don’t you get someone in for a few hours a week to help you look after the house. It’s a big place to be looking after by yourself now that everybody is gone and I’m sure you could afford it!’ Cassie suggested, as they walked home underneath the starry sky after midnight Mass.

  ‘I can do my own housework, Miss, thank you very much!’ bristled Nora.

  ‘It was only a suggestion, Mam,’ Cassie said mildly as they went into the kitchen.

  ‘Well, you can keep suggestions like that to yourself. Who do you think I am? Barbara!’ Nora retorted tartly with a touch of her old spirit, as, chuckling, she made a pot of tea for them.

  By the time Cassie was leaving, Nora was more like her old self but Cassie worried about her although she knew John and Karen called in every day without fail.

  In the meantime, she was looking forward to Laura coming over to her for a weekend in the early summer. Aileen, who expected to be back in London for a while, was going to come and join them in the Wirral. Aileen had stayed with her a few times and they had had some great laughs but with Laura coming over to join them it would be perfect, just like old times.

  On the Friday evening of Laura’s arrival, Cassie drove out to Liverpool airport to collect her friend. The weather was gorgeous and expected to remain so. There was going to be some serious sunbathing done and some mega-serious gossiping! Cassie couldn’t wait. And then, the most exciting thing had happened at work that day, and it was so fitting that the girls would be the first to know about it.

  ‘Oh Cassie! Cassie! Cassie! Isn’t this great?’ Laura was giddy with delight and anticipation as she hugged Cassie in the arrivals hall. ‘What time is Lady Muck arriving?’

  Cassie grinned, hugging her back. ‘In about an hour and a half’s time. We’ll drive directly to Lime Street to pick her up; it will save her having to change trains to get to West Kirby.’

  ‘I’m dying to see her!’ exclaimed Laura, who was looking bandbox-fresh after her flight.

  ‘Me too,’ said Cassie as she led the way out of the airport to where her car was parked. They hardly drew breath on the trip into Liverpool and when Aileen’s train arrived and she saw her two best friends waiting for her she gave a shriek of delight. There was a flurry of hugs and kisses before they left the station and drove under the Mersey towards West Kirby.

  ‘Do you want to go out on the town, or what?’ Cassie asked as they got near home. Aileen and Laura shook their heads.

  ‘I’ve got a litre bottle of Bacardi from the duty-free!’ Laura grinned.

  ‘And I,’ announced Aileen, ‘have a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.’

  ‘What the hell is that? It sounds a bit vulgar to me,’ giggled Cassie. She didn’t need alcohol. She was getting high just being with the girls.

  ‘You philistine, Cassie Jordan!’ Aileen guffawed. ‘I’ll have you know it’s the best o
f champagne given to me by none other than the director of the film I’ve just worked on. And guess what? I might be working on a film with Anthony Hopkins! Oh joy!’

  ‘Anthony Hopkins!’ shrieked the others. ‘Wow!’

  They stopped at Cassie’s favourite haunt, What’s Cooking, and had a very tasty meal over which they lingered for ages, enjoying one another’s company as they caught up with the backlog of news. They then adjourned to Cassie’s house and Laura went into ecstasy at the décor.

  ‘I love the mirrors on the curve in the stairs. They make the whole place seem much bigger,’ she enthused. ‘And did you do those stencils along the stairway?’

  Cassie nodded, smiling.

  ‘Oh Cassie, it’s fabulous. You must be dead chuffed with yourself.’

  ‘As a matter of fact, I am, and not only with the house.’ Cassie was so thrilled that she could keep her news to herself no longer. ‘Guess what happened today?’

  ‘What?’ they chorused.

  Cassie did a little twirl of delight. ‘I got promoted. I’m an assistant manager!’

  ‘Yippee!’ yelled Aileen, as Laura thumped Cassie on the back.

  ‘That definitely calls for champers. Come on, let’s get tiddly!’ Aileen ordered.

  It was five in the morning before the three friends called a halt and retired, very tiddly indeed, to bed.

  Despite their late night, they had an early start the next day. Cassie was determined to show Chester to Laura and Aileen, and they spent an enjoyable few hours shopping in the picturesque city. They returned home after a madly satisfying spree and headed for the back garden wearing their bikinis. Lying in the warm sun, Cassie floated contentedly off to sleep, and was soon joined by her companions. They snoozed happily for a few hours. By the time they had their tea and showered and dolled themselves up, they were raring to go for a night on the town. Cassie took them to the bank’s social club and introduced them to Pauline and Ann and the rest of her friends. They all decided to go to a nightclub and it was the early hours of Sunday morning before their heads hit the pillows.