by Rosie Harris
‘I need to go so I’ll wrap up and take an umbrella,’ her mother insisted.
‘You won’t be able to hold on to it for more than five minutes. It will blow inside out before you reach the end of the street.’
‘Well, in that case I won’t bother taking one at all,’ her mother snapped. She looked at the clock anxiously as she fastened the collar of her coat. ‘I must go or I shall be late.’
‘Late? How can you possibly be late when you’re only going to the shops for food? For heaven’s sake let me go and get whatever it is you need.’
‘You can’t do it, I have to go myself, so stop interfering,’ her mother said furiously.
Sarah gasped, shocked by her outburst. Her mother had never spoken to her like this in her life before. Without a word she stood to one side and let her pass.
As the front door slammed behind her Sarah couldn’t help feeling guilty in case her mother was finding the arrangements for the wedding were getting too much for her.
She was still wondering where her mother was going in such a hurry as she went into the kitchen to put the kettle on. As she did so she noticed that her mother had forgotten the strong canvas bag that she always took with her when she went shopping.
With a sigh of resignation Sarah picked it up, pulled her wet coat back on, and went after her. She could see her hurrying down the street ahead of her but thought that rather than call out to her she would catch her up. Perhaps she even ought to go with her because the wind was so strong and gusty it was enough to blow her over.
To her surprise, her mother stopped at the tram stop and before she could reach her she’d already boarded a tram going towards the city centre.
Puzzled, Sarah decided to follow on the next tram. The trouble was that she had no idea where her mother could possibly be going or where she would get off. Since she would only be about five minutes behind her there was a remote chance that she might spot her walking along the street after she left the tram.
Sarah sat with her face glued to the window as the tram she was on headed in the same direction and, to her relief, as it went along the High Street, towards St Mary’s Street, she saw her mother walking along the pavement. Quickly she reached out and pulled the bell strap to request a stop and was on the platform ready to jump off the minute the tram slowed down.
She looked back up St Mary’s Street in time to see her mother turning into one of the arcades and she hurried after her. She’d almost caught up with her when she saw her enter a building about halfway down the Arcade.
When she reached it she studied the window in bewilderment. It was draped with net curtains but in the centre was an ornate urn filled with very tall dried leaves and flowers and in front of it a parchment scroll. On it, in large gold lettering, was inscribed: ‘Artus Gribbling, Faith Healer’.
She read the sign twice more then shook her head in bewilderment. Her mother didn’t believe in that sort of thing, so what on earth was she doing here? she wondered.
The first thought that came into her mind was that her mother was trying to earn some extra money and had come to clean the offices. Then she remembered that her mother had been wearing her best coat and hat and so that couldn’t be the answer. Anyway, it was the middle of the day so that was out of the question.
So if it wasn’t for that purpose then what was it for? she wondered. She wasn’t sure whether to go home and say nothing, to wait until her mother emerged and then ask her why she was there, or to march in and see what was going on.
None of these things seemed to be the right sort of action to take. There was a small café opposite so she decided to go in there and have a hot drink. She’d sit by the window and wait until she saw her mother come out again.
The moment she emerged Sarah followed her, taking care to keep out of sight until the tram came along and then she boarded it after her mother and went and sat next to her.
‘So are you going to tell me what all that was about?’ she asked quietly.
Her mother looked both startled and a little shamefaced as she turned and found Sarah alongside her, but she remained silent as Sarah held out the money to the conductor for the two of them.
‘I wish you hadn’t followed me, Sarah; I didn’t want you or your dad to know what I was doing,’ Lorna said quietly.
‘No, you made that pretty obvious from the way you said you were going out shopping and then scuttled off as if the devil himself was on your heels.’
‘I was late for my appointment,’ Lorna said, her mouth tightening into a grim line.
‘What appointment? What on earth are you doing making an appointment to see a faith healer? I thought you were dead against such things.’
Again a stubborn look came over her mother’s face and she didn’t answer.
‘You’d better tell me,’ Sarah insisted. ‘I won’t let it rest until you do. If you don’t tell me right now what it is all about then I shall tell Dad and ask him to talk to you and find out.’
‘No, no, you mustn’t do that,’ her mother begged. She laid her hand beseechingly on Sarah’s arm. ‘Don’t go saying a word to him, promise me now?’
‘It depends on what you tell me,’ Sarah told her. ‘Am I right in thinking this has something to do with all the worrying you’ve been doing over paying bills?’
‘Yes, it has in a way,’ her mother admitted, staring out of the window and refusing to look at Sarah.
‘Please, Mam, I need to know what’s going on,’ Sarah persisted.
‘Yes, I know you do,’ her mother sighed. ‘Look, I’ll explain everything when we get home; not here on the tram,’ she promised.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sarah and her mother were both drenched by the time they reached home and Lorna insisted that the first thing they did was to change into dry clothes.
‘I’ll just put the kettle on,’ she told Sarah, ‘and then it will be boiling by the time we’ve got out of our wet things.’
‘Yes, and while we sit down and have a cup of tea together, you can tell me what’s going on and why you were visiting a faith healer today,’ Sarah told her.
Sarah was changed first and had made the tea by the time her mother came downstairs.
‘Well?’ she asked as she poured it out and handed her mother a cup.
Lorna concentrated on putting two spoonfuls of sugar into her tea and stirring it very slowly, staring down into the cup all the time she was doing so.
‘I’m waiting,’ Sarah said impatiently. ‘Come on, you did promise, Mam.’
‘Yes, I know I did,’ her mother sighed. ‘I’m wondering if I ought to wait until your dad comes home and then tell you both or whether it would be best to keep it between ourselves.’
‘If you told me what it’s all about then I might be able to give you an answer to that,’ Sarah commented solemnly.
Her mother took a sip of her tea then put the cup down quickly and dabbed at her mouth. ‘That was far too hot,’ she said, reaching for the milk jug.
‘Mam,’ Sarah leaned across the table and took one of her hands, ‘I need to know why you were visiting a faith healer; a man who is known to be a quack.’
‘You shouldn’t say that, Sarah, he’s done me far more good than our own doctor has. He’s offered me hope.’
‘I think you’d better tell me more, don’t you?’ she told her mother.
Sarah felt panic rising inside her as she waited for her mother to continue. What on earth was she talking about? She knew that her mother hadn’t been looking too well but what was it she had she been to see the doctor about in the first place? she wondered. It obviously had something to do with why she was short of money.
‘Go on, then, tell me what’s wrong,’ she pressed as her mother remained silent.
‘I’ve had a lump in my side and this terrible pain,’ her mother confessed. ‘I put up with it for a couple of months and then it became so bad that I went to see the doctor.’
‘What did he say it was?’ Again, Sarah
had to press her to speak because it was almost as if her mother didn’t want to tell her.
‘He said it was a growth that was pressing on some of my internal organs and that was why I had this terrible pain. He said it was cancer and that I had left it too late to do anything about it.’
‘Oh, Mam! This is dreadful! Why on earth didn’t you tell me, and not go through all that on your own?’ Sarah gasped. ‘So this is why you went to see a faith healer?’
‘Yes,’ her mother nodded her head, sniffing back her tears.
With tears in her own eyes Sarah got up and put her arms round her mother, hugging her close. ‘What did he tell you?’ she asked in a shaky voice.
‘He confirmed what the doctor had said about it being a growth but he said not to worry because he could cure it. He gave me some red ointment that I had to apply every morning and a bottle of some sort of herbal concoction to take twice a day.’
‘And has either of them done you any good?’ Sarah asked in a cynical voice.
‘I thought at first they were making me feel better but lately I’m not so sure. The lump feels bigger and the skin where I have to rub the ointment in is all puckered and blistered and very tender, almost as if it has been scalded.’
‘What about the medicine? Is that doing you any good at all?’
Lorna sighed unhappily. ‘It makes me feel so dizzy that sometimes I’m not sure what I’m doing or where I am and that makes me so miserable that I want to scream.’
‘Is this one of the reasons why you’re finding it hard to make ends meet, because you are spending so much money on these treatments?’ Sarah probed.
‘Yes, cariad. I was doing it for the best, though,’ her mother added hurriedly. ‘I was so frightened when the doctor said it couldn’t be cured and then this man gave me hope.’
‘Who told you about him? Not the doctor, I’m sure.’
‘I saw a piece in the newspaper telling what he’d done. He was a miner and he developed a growth on his arm from some infection he picked up down the pit. Well, his dad had been a farmer and had taught him a lot about herbs and what they could do, so he treated his own arm and it cleared up in next to no time. After that all his fellow miners were asking for lotions and potions to cure all their ailments and he was so successful that he decided to leave the mine and set up a practice here in Cardiff.’
‘Well, he may know how to cure some things when they are on the outside but curing internal illnesses is quite different, now isn’t it?’ Sarah pointed out.
‘Yes, but that’s what this herbal concoction was for and herbs are something a lot of country folk are knowledgeable about. There’s nothing new about it; people have been using herbs to cure their ailments for centuries. Every wild flower and plant has some medicinal property if you know what it is and how to apply it.’
‘Yes, I know, Mam, but I’ve heard of such people as the one you went to see and they are regarded as quacks and very expensive ones at that. They latch on to sick people with all sorts of promises of a cure. They tell them they must go on taking the concoctions they’ve made up for them and keep them coming back again and again.’
‘These herbal people do know what they’re on about,’ her mother insisted. ‘There was a chap called Nicholas Culpepper who lived on the outskirts of London way back in the Middle Ages and who had a special garden given over entirely to herbs. He was known everywhere for his skill in prescribing the right herbs and curing whatever illness people had.’
‘Has this man told you what is in the concoction he’s prescribing for you?’
Lorna chewed on her lower lip. ‘He did tell me what was in the bottle but it meant nothing; something about the extracts from the roots of Burdock, Berberis and several other herbs. I’d never heard of them and I can’t remember what the others were.’
‘What about the ointment? Was that supposed to be made from herbs as well?’
‘Yes, that has bloodroot, zinc, hemlock and saffron in it. He also gave me a carbolic smoke ball to use.’
‘What on earth were you supposed to do with that?’ Sarah asked in alarm.
‘I’m not sure because I didn’t use it. The smell was horrible and I threw it out as soon as I got home,’ her mother admitted. ‘I was afraid that if you or your dad got a whiff of it you’d want to know what it was.’
‘Are you going to tell Dad all this?’ Sarah asked as she poured out another cup of tea for her mother.
‘Not quite all of it. I suppose I ought to tell him why I’ve been so short of money.’
‘Yes, I think you should, because he’s been very concerned. In the past you’ve always been able to manage with the housekeeping money perfectly well. How much has it been costing you to go and see this man every week?’
‘I don’t go every week; only about once a month. He does charge a lot, though,’ she admitted reluctantly.
‘I bet he does and I’m afraid Dad is bound to tell you that he’s a complete charlatan.’
‘He may be right,’ her mother admitted sadly. ‘I certainly don’t feel any better; in fact, if the truth be told I seem to feel worse as time goes by.’
‘Then you must go and see the doctor again.’
‘It’s pointless doing that, cariad. He’s already told me that I’ve left it too late and there’s nothing he can do for me.’
Lloyd was most distressed when he heard about what had been going on. Like Sarah he was anxious that Lorna should go back to the doctor.
‘You’ve not been looking well for a long time and I suspected there must be something wrong with you. In fact, I said to Sarah that you look very drawn sometimes. What’s more, you’ve lost weight. I put it down to the fact that you’ve been economising and not eating as much as you should be.’
‘Well, now you know all there is to know you can stop worrying.’
‘Oh no,’ Lloyd told her firmly. ‘You’re going back to see the doctor and this time I’m going with you. I want to hear what he has to say with my own ears. You may not have understood him correctly. I’m sure there is some sort of medical treatment you can have.’
‘Oh I heard him correctly,’ Lorna assured him.
‘Well, perhaps he thought you couldn’t afford to pay for special medicine or whatever it is that is necessary and that is why he didn’t hold out any hope.’
Two days later they went to see the doctor together and when they returned home Sarah knew from the look on her father’s face that the news had been far more serious than he’d expected.
‘It’s not good, not good at all,’ he told Sarah when they were on their own.
‘What did the doctor tell you?’
He shook his head. ‘Nothing that was helpful. He said the growth had gone too far when she first went to see him and that it was still growing and there was nothing he could do for her.’
‘Did you tell him that she’d been seeing a faith healer?’
‘Yes, I did and, like me, he considered the man to be a quack and said he shouldn’t be allowed to build up people’s hopes like he does.’
‘Or take their money.’
‘Well, yes, there’s that as well but you can’t blame him if people are gullible, now can you?’
‘I suppose if you are told something is incurable and then you are offered what seems to be a miracle cure you are going to want to try it, no matter what it costs,’ Sarah said thoughtfully.
‘That’s what he plays on; I wouldn’t grudge him the money if there was any hope of a cure but to string folks along like he does is all wrong.’
‘So what happens now? Is there anything at all that we can do?’
‘Absolutely nothing, apparently, so we must do all we can to look after your mother and make things as easy as possible for as long as we can,’ Lloyd said gloomily.
Sarah looked shocked. She knew her mother was desperately ill but it sounded so final and the thought of losing her was heart-breaking. They’d all had problems recently but her mother had been their rock and even th
ough at times she must have felt desperately ill she’d never said a word and her main concern had been supporting them.
‘Is that what the doctor said? I can’t believe he told you that in front of her?’
‘She asked him outright how long she’d got so the poor man had no alternative but to tell her the truth. He did it as kindly as he possibly could.’
‘Does she know that you are telling me?’
Lloyd nodded. ‘She thought it might be best if I was the one to tell you because she thought you might be upset and she didn’t want you making a fuss. She wants us to treat her as normal and she doesn’t want either of us to worry about her.’
‘Maybe not, but things will change. For a start we must cancel the wedding.’
‘You’d better talk to her about that. I think she will probably insist that you go ahead. She says it will give her peace of mind to know you are married and settled.’
‘I think all the worry about getting everything done is going to be too much for her and will make her worse,’ Sarah protested. ‘She needs peace and quiet, not all the fuss associated with a wedding.’
Owen understood Sarah’s concern when she told him the news and he suggested that if her mother insisted they went ahead then it should be a very quiet wedding with just a meal for the four of them afterwards.
‘Who’s going to be best man?’ Sarah asked. ‘We’d have to invite him to the meal as well.’
‘I have no family and no really close friends so I thought of asking Bryn Morgan. He knows both of us and he knows your dad. I’m not sure if he would want to stay on afterwards but if he did then that would be no problem, would it?’
When she talked to her mother about it and told her what they were planning Lorna was adamant that things should go ahead as already arranged and wouldn’t hear of them cancelling or even cutting back on what they’d planned to do afterwards.
‘I’ve been looking forward to seeing you married more than anything in the world. It’s what’s been keeping me going. You two need to concentrate on more important matters, like deciding where you are going to live,’ she scolded.
