Family Portraits

by JoAnn Aitken

  He was worried about his Dunnville family. Both boys wanted to study engineering, and Alex was going to university in September. Liam would follow in a year. That was a good thing except the brothers had never been apart. This was a great concern which wasn’t discussed, but when Alex’s upcoming departure was mentioned, M-G could see something like panic in the boys’ eyes.

  He worried about them a lot and wished he could help.

  He took a few days in Antigonish in June to celebrate his fifteenth birthday, and he hoped he could talk to Molly or Theresa. Molly was busy so the opportunity was never there. He tried to talk to Theresa, but his little sister and brother were always interrupting. Before long, it was time for him to go home.

  At breakfast on his last day, Gordie asked him if he would like to come to the service center and see a vintage Corvette Stingray an old guy was bringing in to show Gordie. Would he?! It was immaculate, perfect, the most beautiful car M-G had ever seen, and he was high as a kite as he and Gordie walked home.

  In his euphoric state, M-G decided to take a shot and told Gordie what was on his mind. What did Gordie think?

  Gordie figured it was a problem that could be easily solved. “When I met your mother,” he said, "she was going to a fancy private school in Hamilton, and Sharon was going to a first-class high school.

  "Alex is going to stay with Kathy and Eddie, isn’t he? Well, I’d bet my last dollar that they would have Liam too, and he could go to that school. It would be a great wrap-up to his high school career, doing grade twelve at the top-ranked high school in Hamilton instead of Dunnville District High.

  “Maybe you could talk to Billy about that.”

  M-G mulled that over. It seemed to be a great idea. He’d talk to Billy as soon as he got back.

  As they walked up the sidewalk to the house, he looked up at Gordie and said, “Thanks, Daddy.”

  September 2013

  It was hard to believe that Joy and Sean were seven and six years old, in Grades Two and One. Everybody was gone from home by 8:30, and Theresa felt kind of lonesome. She always had lots of work to do, and the highlight of her day was taking Gordie his lunch.

  Gordie wanted to get her a dog, but they agreed that it wasn’t fair to ask someone to look after their pet when they went away to Ontario several times a year. Gordie fretted about her, and suggested that she take some part-time university courses or consider volunteering somewhere.

  University-level courses when she still had a large domestic load seemed too much for her, so she asked around about volunteering. The public library was always looking for help, and that seemed perfect.

  Theresa started out with one afternoon a week and progressed to two. That was because the little kids in Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten at the elementary school down the street walked to the library twice a month.

  Naturally, Theresa was wonderful with the children, and soon she was reading and telling stories to them. They loved the Story Circle and Mrs. G. Sometimes, Gordie would briefly drop in with his acoustic guitar and sing them some songs. They initially called him “Mr. Gallagher,” but he said that was his father – to great hilarity, the kids being too young to have heard that old joke before – so they called him Gordie, and they loved him and his music.

  After school one library day, Kindergartener Julia Brown walked home with her mother, enthusing about what a good time it had been. “And you know, Mommy,” she observed, “every time Gordie leaves to go back to work, he kisses Mrs. G.”

  Donna Brown smiled a little wistfully. “Everyone should know a love like the Gallaghers’, Jules,” she said.

  Early March 2014

  Eddie had a big soft spot for Theresa and Gordie.

  When he came to Maple Lane in 1985, looking for Katherine, he had never been so nervous. When he pulled into the parking area, he saw her in front of the house with two little girls and a baby in her arms. He assumed the children were some of her nieces and nephews.

  As he approached the group, the pounding of his heart drowned out his own voice as he greeted them. Katherine introduced the girls, and the really pretty one with the enormous eyes took a step forward. She looked up at him and said, “You’re gorgeous.” He chuckled, and the ice was broken.

  Eddie considered that to be the greatest day of his life, reunited with his beloved Kat and meeting the son he didn’t know he had. In his memory, Theresa played a starring role.

  Eddie was in full agreement with Gordie that their first child was indeed a little treasure. She looked like her grandmother and grew more and more like her as she got older. Eddie called her “La P’tite, Molly” and always made a special fuss over her.

  When he heard about her audition at McGill in early March, he recognized the expense involved for Gordie and Theresa. He suggested to Katherine that they go to Antingonish and take Molly to Montreal for her audition. They could go the previous afternoon so that she could relax a little and bring her home after the audition was over.

  Kathy thought it was a splendid idea. They could have a short visit with Gordie and Theresa, just the four of them, and spend some time with Molly.

  Theresa and Gordie were very grateful, and Molly was beyond excited. Going to Montreal with Eddie and Kathy and the audition the next day was the biggest adventure of her life.

  They stayed overnight in a suite in a hotel as elegant as anything Molly had ever seen in a magazine. The night before the audition, they had dinner at a five-star restaurant in the Old Town, and Eddie ordered all kinds of special things. He spoke French to everyone, and Molly felt like a princess in such sophisticated company.

  Down to earth the next day, she attended the audition. She knew high school French, and Eddie had coached her as to a gracious greeting to the judicators.

  Hello, friend, she thought as she sat down at the grand piano, and she began her two pieces, one chosen by the University’s Music Department, the other her own selection. She felt wonderful and played flawlessly.

  The judges kept poker faces as they thanked her and indicated that she would receive word within ten days to two weeks. After she left the room, they smiled at each other. Not only was she a talented pianist, but an adorable young girl with her sweet greeting and becoming white dress embroidered with tiny shamrocks (a gift from Gordie who had made a special trip to Halifax).

  Ten long days passed before the acceptance letter from McGill arrived, followed the very next day by good news from St. Francis Xavier. Molly was walking on clouds, and her parents felt about to burst with pride.

  It was a hard choice. Molly asked Theresa for her opinion. Theresa didn’t want to influence her, but she did say that living in Montreal would be a wonderful experience, and Molly would be completely bilingual when she graduated.

  Gordie put his arms around her and said, “Follow your heart, baby.”

  There was no question where her heart lay – in Antigonish with her parents and little sister and brother. Gordie advised her not to be hasty and take a couple of days to decide.

  Another consideration was that St. Francis Xavier University provides students entering from high school with a grade point average of at least eighty-five percent with a $5,000 scholarship. Molly easily met that requirement, and her choice was made.

  September 2014

  It was an exciting time. Molly was starting university. She wasn’t nervous, just hungry for learning and the new people she would meet. “I can’t wait,” had been her mantra for several months.

  Her parents never let on, but they were overwhelmed with relief that she would be studying in Antigonish and living at home. Theresa had been sure her heart would break if her little girl were over seven hundred miles away, and Gordie had stewed over the terrible things that could happen to his baby in the big city. Now they could relax for a few more years.

  Summer 2015

  Katherine never walked in downtown Hamilton unless it was at the busiest times of day. Although some areas were struggling to make a comeback, most of it w
as rundown and sleazy.

  Panhandlers and people lying on the sidewalk were common. The eastern section was particularly seedy, and Katherine had to walk there on this particular day to look at a property on Eddie’s behalf. Some optimistic developers were trying to convert what had been, in a previous life, a luxury hotel into condos. Kathy asked herself who the hell would want to come home after dark in this neighborhood.

  As she stepped off the curb to cross the street, a woman from the other direction literally bumped into her. Kathy pulled her purse close to her body and moved away.

  “Kathy,” the woman said softly. Kathy took a look and recognized her sister Caroline.

  No one knew anything about Caroline’s whereabouts. About ten years previous, on her last release from rehab, she was supposed to go into a sober living house, but she had just disappeared. The family didn’t know if she was alive or dead.

  She looked closer to dead than alive, and Katherine was horrified. She was a terrible sight – thin, gray, and shabby. She seemed somewhat altered, although it was only 10:30 in the morning. Kathy hugged her, and she felt like she was made of dust.

  “How are my girls?” she asked.

  “They’re beautiful and happy. They have loving husbands and children,” replied her sister.

  “Good,” said Caroline. Talking seemed to be an effort for her.

  “Mother?”

  “She’s not too bad. She’s improved a lot, but it’s a long road.”

  “You look wonderful. You have a good husband, don’t you?”

  “He is an amazing gift,” Kathy replied.

  “I have to go,” said the poor ghostlike creature.

  “It was good to see you.”

  Thoughts were rushing through Katherine’s head and heart. Her heart told her to take Caroline home and try to help her. Her head knew there was no hope of that, and she just couldn’t expose her household to the hell she would bring them. Decades of experience left her with no doubt.

  She reached in her purse and gave her a fifty-dollar bill and her business card. The card gave her phone numbers but purposely didn’t show her address. “Please call me if you need me,” she said, hugging her again.

  Caroline said, “You tried to help me in the beginning, Kathy, but it was already too late.” And she turned and walked away.

  Katherine went to her appointment and tried to push the incident back until later when she could talk to Eddie. By the time that happened, she was wracked by guilt and paced endlessly while they talked.

  "I know that there’s nothing I can do, Eddie. Mother has tried everything to help her for over thirty years. We can’t bring her here. She’ll bring in street people when we’re not home, and they’ll rob us blind…if she doesn’t burn our house down.

  "My God, listen to me…she’s out there, dying in the streets, and I won’t help her. What kind of a person am I?

  “I should have tried harder. I should have taken her for coffee and tried to get her to go into rehab again. I should have…” Kathy was getting increasingly agitated, which wasn’t like her.

  Eddie was very upset to see his wife this way. He knew that she had done the right thing. “You threw her a lifeline, Kat. She has your phone numbers, and somehow I don’t think this is the end of it. My darling, you are a pragmatist, as am I.”

  He took her in his arms and pulled her down on the couch beside him. She relaxed against him. “Do you think Sharon or Theresa would have taken her home with them?” he asked.

  “Not Sharon, for sure, but Dennis would. Not Theresa or Gordie. They have little children.”

  “Dennis would have his house filled with every hard-luck case he ever met if Sharon would let him,” said Eddie.

  “You’re right,” Kathy said. “She has my numbers and I will try to do something other than give her money for drugs or alcohol if she calls.”

  The phone woke them up at six o’clock the next morning. It was someone from Police Services, reporting that a woman had been killed crossing King Street late the previous night. She had Katherine’s card in her pocket.

  Eddie drove Kathy to the morgue to identify her sister. She had been carrying no identification, only Kathy’s card. She looked peaceful when the sheet was pulled back for Kathy to view.

  An autopsy would be performed, and Caroline’s remains would be cremated. Kathy would receive the autopsy results and her sister’s ashes in due time.

  When Kathy and Eddie got home, they sat in their kitchen and had coffee and brandy. Kathy said, “What would Gabriel have done?”

  Eddie thought about that. "As Din pointed out at the memorial gathering, Gabriel was a wise man in a child’s body. He had the most tender heart, Kat, but he also understood reality.

  “Do you remember when that really nice cat of Barbara’s got hit by a car?”

  “Purrdy.”

  "He was terribly injured, but Barbara wouldn’t accept it. She paid a great deal of money for operations to save him, but in the end, she did him no favors. His jaw had been broken, and he couldn’t eat without assistance or groom himself.

  "Barbara was so upset, and she wanted another operation, which really would have just been cruel, but Gabriel talked her into having the poor thing put to sleep.

  “And when that happened, she couldn’t handle being there, so Gabriel sat with him, holding his little paw until it was over.”

  Kathy put her head down and cried for a long time. She cried for Caroline, her nieces, her mother, brothers, and sister. She cried for Gabriel and the dear little cat Purrdy. Eventually, she looked up and said through her tears, “I love you, Eddie.”

  That night, a group gathered at the Gascoynes’. There were Kathy and Eddie, her brother David and Susan, Sharon and Dennis, and via Skype on two laptops, Nicholas and Emma, and Theresa and Gordie. Everyone was aware of what had happened, and the meeting was to decide what to do about Barbara.

  Barbara had been doing so well. Her health was good and her spirits much better. She wasn’t drinking other than a sherry in the late afternoon or a whiskey on special occasions. She enjoyed her companions, and her family was happy and relieved.

  What was this news going to do to her?

  There was a lot of discussion. Some felt that she needn’t be told. It had been so long since there had been any word of Caroline. How could it be a good thing to bring everything back?

  Others felt that keeping the secret wasn’t the right thing to do. And others warned that Barbara would be furious if she ever found out that no one had told her.

  Eddie said, “I have a proposal. Let’s present this problem to the wisest man we know and ask him to help us.”

  That would be Finn. Everyone agreed.

  In a while, Finn joined them on Katherine’s laptop. He had been given the news on the phone and offered his condolences to everyone.

  "It’s hard to be sorrowful now that the suffering of that poor girl is over. She was only eleven years old when the nightmare began, and it seems that she never woke up. Her spirit is free at last, and may she enjoy eternal peace.

  "If everyone agrees, I will talk to Barbara. We have been friends for twenty years and have a great understanding between us. I believe she should know that her child has passed. I believe that her new life and newfound self-respect will help her come to terms with the conclusion to the story.

  "And it is the conclusion to that story, the anger and pain and guilt and remorse, the terrible damage to everyone Barbara loved. I know you all. I know that you are all past it and are able to accept and return the love that surrounds you.

  “If I might so bold, I would suggest that Caroline’s ashes be given to her daughters to make a decision about what to do. I believe talking that through together will give them an opportunity to cleanse their hearts of any bitterness that might remain.”

  There were tears and gratitude to Finn. “Oh, Finn, I wish I could hug you,” said Theresa.

  “I’ll do it when we see him tomorrow,” said Sharon.
/>   “Bless you, Finn,” said Nicholas in Edmonton who was holding Emma’s hand.

  She was bearing up remarkably well and said, “Thank you for bringing Finn into our lives, Theresa and Gordie.”

  “Isn’t he wonderful?” Molly joined her husband on screen.

  Embarrassed, Finn rolled his eyes. “This is my PR person,” he said, and he kissed her.

  Finn did meet with Barbara. He drove to Maple Lane alone the next Sunday after lunch. She was surprised to see him without Molly, and they walked out on the property to look at the hydrangeas to see how their colors were changing as the summer progressed.

  No one ever knew what they said to each other, not even Molly. When they returned to the house, Barbara was a little wobbly, but she held Finn’s arm and came in announcing that Finn would be her partner at bridge that afternoon instead of Janet if Janet didn’t mind.

  She played well and took her usual glass of sherry. When it was time for the ladies’ dinner, Finn bid them farewell. Molly was expecting him. He had had an opportunity to speak quietly to Janet, who was a retired nurse, asking her to keep an eye on Barbara because she had suffered a loss in her family.

  “It shouldn’t be mentioned unless she brought it up,” Finn said, “but I sincerely believe she will be okay.”

  And she seemed to be.

  Sharon and Theresa communicated a little more often than usual. They hadn’t talked about Caroline in years. The memories were very difficult, and neither wanted to revisit them.

  Theresa asked, “Can you think of one good memory?” Neither could off-hand, but they agreed to try before they spoke again.

  The following day, each had a small offering. That made them feel a little better. “And I have an idea about her ashes,” said Theresa.

  “What do you think about burying them under the Gabriel tree?”

  “Why do you suggest that?” asked Sharon.

  She knew Theresa meant the maple tree on her front lawn. “Because I think it symbolizes tranquility as the maple tree was Gabriel’s favorite. I also think it symbolizes peace and reconciliation because Billy gave it to Gordie as a gift.”