Meadow Lane

by Maureen Reynolds

  As they shook his hand on leaving, they all said the same thing. ‘We’ll remember her as she was.’

  Ed was sailing back home at the end of that week. He had helped Maryanne move into her new house and had left money for her to buy whatever she needed. Friends had been so good to her, and the flat had been furnished by them and even people she had never met. She went to the train station with him, and said, ‘Tell Eddie I’m here if he ever needs me.’

  Ed asked her once again about joining him but she said maybe in the future. She watched as the train moved away and went and bought a bunch of flowers from the City Arcade. She caught the bus and was soon at the cemetery where she placed them on Sadie’s grave which now had a small headstone. It stated: Sadie Boyd, dear wife of Ed and mother of Eddie. A golden girl taken too soon.

  Maryanne walked away saying amen to that.

  47

  Bella and Albert’s wedding took place in September. It was a quiet affair with only their old neighbours and a few old friends there. It was held in the registry office on the first Saturday and a crowd of Saturday shoppers stopped to look as they emerged.

  Their expressions ranged from interested to amazed when they saw the elderly couple standing with big smiles. Grace threw confetti which blew away on the autumn breeze before the couple entered the wedding car.

  The reception was held in the Royal Hotel which was a stone’s throw from the City Square and all the guests walked there, laughing and catching up with one another. Since the fire, they hadn’t been together like this en masse and it was clear they were making the most of the happy occasion.

  Grace, Bill, Evie and Evelyn walked with Maryanne, Anna, Thomas and Tommy. The girls were chatting to each other, glad to be back in one another’s company. Eliza was with Rory and Morag and Rory was pushing Martha in her wheelchair with Mrs Bell and a couple of Bella’s old friends taking up the rear. There was a chilly breeze and they were glad to be inside the hotel where it was warm and welcoming.

  Bella was wearing a long grey dress with a sequin collar and Albert looked smart in his navy blazer and grey trousers. He looked so proud and pleased standing beside his new bride that it made Grace think that love wasn’t just for the young.

  Albert made a speech which made the guests laugh when he said he hoped the Courier newspaper wouldn’t print their photo on the wedding page that came out every Monday morning. ‘We’ll look like two ancient dinosaurs amongst the youngsters,’ he said.

  Thomas called out, ‘Speak for yourself, Albert, Bella looks stunning.’

  He looked fondly at his bride. ‘I know she does and I’m a lucky man that she said yes to my proposal. As you all know, I lost my wife a couple of years ago and I was reconciled to a lonely old age but Bella has rescued me. Many years ago she lost her dearest fiancé. Davie died on the battlefields of France which was a traumatic time for her but she has lived her life with dignity and grace and I’m so glad to be called her husband.’

  Everyone applauded and Thomas gave a loud, ‘Hear, hear.’

  The waitress brought the drinks for the toast and everyone wished the couple the best for the future. Albert raised his glass to his wife but added, ‘Let us drink to absent friends.’ He then added, ‘We have had a lovely card from Ed, Esther and Eddie from America and I know Maryanne has also had one and we are all in their thoughts.’ Everyone remembered Sadie and also Ed and Eddie. There was a moment’s silence until the waitress announced the buffet was open and they gathered round the table, gossiping like they had in the old days in the lane.

  Tommy was full of her new house and her new school while Evie hadn’t much to say about her life. She would soon be in her final year at Rosebank and, like Tommy, they would then be starting a secondary education on the road to growing up.

  ‘I’m hoping to be a teacher,’ said Evie. ‘What are you hoping to be, is it still a film star or a model?’

  Tommy said she didn’t know. ‘I’m keeping my options open.’

  Martha was complaining about one of her neighbours. ‘She keeps popping in and out all day and I’m fed up with it. It’s not like it used to be when we were all together.’

  Eliza said the woman had only popped in once three days ago and Martha glared at her and said, ‘Well, it feels like she’s in and out all the time.’

  Albert had overheard and he whispered to Grace, ‘Nothing ever changes with Martha, does it?’

  Grace laughed and said a truer word was never spoken. ‘Poor Eliza, I had hoped moving to a new street would be stimulating for Martha with fresh bits of gossip and new neighbours to complain to.’

  Albert made another speech. ‘A lot of people might think I got married to Bella because she had a house and of course I did.’ He turned to his wife. ‘I’m just joking. No, I’ve always admired her for her strength and lovely nature and I know Effie Bell, Davie’s great-niece, will second that.’

  All eyes turned to the woman who looked so pleased to be singled out for a compliment and she nodded and smiled while raising her glass.

  Later the happy couple left to go back to their house in Hepburn Street. Albert laughed as they went through the door to the waiting taxi. ‘At our age, Hepburn Street is like going to the South of France, as it feels like the same distance for our arthritic legs.’

  Grace said, ‘You are both young enough yourselves and you’re not arthritic.’

  With the wedding couple away, the party broke up and they all made their way back to their new homes with promises to stay in touch with one another.

  Meadow Lane was now a past memory except in the minds of the occupants who would always remember living beside one another, and nothing would ever take that away.

  48

  Dundee 1975

  Evie stood where the entrance to Meadow Lane used to be, but there was no sign that it had ever been there. Even the black and white street sign was no more. So much had happened over the twenty years since Sadie died and everyone had to move out. There was a new building there with modern windows and a door with names and buttons on it.

  She wondered what had happened to the grassy or often muddy bit of ground at the front of the houses but now she would never know. A young woman came out pushing a baby in a modern looking buggy and she thought of Morag and Rory’s Silver Cross pram which had looked so majestic.

  After a backward glance she made her way to the top of the street where the car was waiting. There was a small crowd around it and she saw Eddie talking to her parents and granny while Maryanne was chatting to Esther, Ed and Tommy’s family. They had just returned from Eliza’s funeral, a sad occasion where a few tears had been shed.

  When she reached them, Eddie came over and put his arm around her. ‘As you all know, we got married quietly a month ago and we are sorry that none of the family could come over for the wedding but Grace, Bill and Maryanne are coming over to see us soon,’ he said. ‘We are pleased to see Albert and Bella still hale and hearty and so sorry about Eliza.’

  Tommy came over when he went to speak to his father. She looked successful. Evie knew she had married Pete’s youngest son a couple of years ago and they now had a young daughter. Tommy said she couldn’t believe how they had turned out. ‘Do you mind when we were at school, you said you were going to be a teacher, Evie, well, you did. I never had any ambition but I’ve got my lovely family, and Mum and Dad are happy.’

  Evie said that she never believed how the simple act of going to New York to teach in a school there would lead to her marriage to Eddie. ‘I wrote to him for years after he left and we kept in touch. He has his own accountancy business in New York and we met up and now we’re married. Life can turn out strange, can’t it?’

  Tommy said it certainly could. ‘Do you remember when he was at school with us, how great he was at sums?’

  Evie laughed. ‘Yes, I do, and I remember Miss Malcolm blushing when he called her “ma’am” which annoyed that horrid Bruce Davidson. What is he doing now?’

  Tommy said she di
dn’t know and she cared even less.

  It was time to go. Evie and Eddie had been staying at Maryanne’s house while Ed and Esther had checked into a hotel, but their flights were booked for early the next morning. Evie gave Tommy a hug. ‘Keep in touch, Tommy. I hope we meet again sometime.’

  Tommy said she would and she pointed to her head. ‘I still have that hair slide you gave me.’ Evie said she had noticed.

  Eddie was behind the wheel and his father and stepmother Esther got in the back while Evie slipped in beside her husband and they all waved as the car drove off.

  Grace, Bill and Evelyn had declined a lift as had Maryanne because Thomas had brought his new car and he was taking them home before heading off for Glasgow.

  Eddie, Evie and his parents along with Maryanne had visited the cemetery where Eddie placed a large bunch of flowers on Sadie’s grave. Ed and Eddie had stood for ages in silence before turning and walking away. Evie saw Eddie wipe tears from his eyes and Esther took his arm. ‘She is still your mother, Eddie, and take comfort from the fact she desperately wanted you back with her. She didn’t desert you.’ Eddie nodded but was so overcome he couldn’t answer.

  When they drove away, Ed said he hoped Evie’s parents and grandmother would fly over to see them. ‘I hope they persuade Maryanne to come as well. I did ask her to come and stay with us for good but she said she would think about it.’

  Evie asked how Joel was managing with the farm. ‘You know how he is, Evie, a born farmer through and through, so he’s managing just fine.’

  Esther said she liked Eddie and Evie’s new apartment in New York and they said they both loved it as well. Eddie gave his wife a loving glance. ‘You saved my life back then while we were living in the lane. It was your friendship, Evie, that helped me. Both you and Tommy.’ Evie gave him a smile and said it was a pleasure as he had been such a lovely boy.

  They were staying in Glasgow overnight and would catch the early morning flight to America. Evie glanced out of the window to take in as much of her homeland as possible, as it would probably be a while before she would see it again. She knew she was going to miss her parents and her granny but Grace had said that the world was getting smaller now that planes were used instead of long sea journeys so they would all meet up soon. ‘That’s a promise.’

  ‘It’s a pity we didn’t see the McCallums,’ said Eddie, ‘but Maryanne said they were on holiday in Skye.’

  Evie sounded sad. ‘I’m sorry about Eliza’s death and glad it was peaceful. I heard her neighbour saying she passed away in her sleep. She also said she had never recovered from losing her mother not long after moving into their Church Street House. She always believed it was the trauma of moving away from Meadow Lane.’

  Eddie nodded, but added ‘Still, I bet she caused mayhem with her gossip before departing.’

  Although the funeral was sad as Eddie and Evie always liked Eliza, they all laughed at the memory of the indomitable and gossip-laughing Martha. As Evie looked out of the window at the passing streets, she also mourned the now-forgotten Meadow Lane.

  Maryanne thanked Thomas for dropping her off at her door. It was lovely seeing her grandson and his dad looking so well. She was grateful to Esther for all her care during his growing up years and she thought that the tiny woman, she was just five feet one inch, didn’t have a pudding face as Sadie had once stated. She was a lovely, caring woman who had tried to get her to come and live with them.

  She went to the sideboard and brought out her wedding photo. Thankfully it hadn’t been damaged in the fire. Bernard looked so young, even although he was sixteen years older than her. He had been a lovely husband and father to Sadie.

  She remembered those far-off years when she left the orphanage at fourteen. Her father had been killed in the trenches of France and her mother had died not long after she was born. Some people said it was a broken heart.

  She had gone to work with Bernard in his hardware shop in the Overgate and had got lodgings with an elderly woman in the West Port. Just before her sixteenth birthday she went off to Blackpool with a friend from the orphanage, Lily Spence. Bernard had given her an extra week’s wages for her fare and the price of the caravan they were staying in and the two girls went off, laughing and full of fun at the thought of a week away from work and home.

  Well of course it all turned out differently. Lily didn’t like the caravan or Blackpool and she went home after a couple of days. Maryanne thought she would stay a couple more days before going back. That was when she met Alexander, or Sandy as he called himself. He was tall and good looking and was over for a holiday from Australia. He said he was visiting his grandmother but had come away for a holiday.

  Maryanne fell for him like a ton of bricks and he seemed to feel the same. She couldn’t understand why a golden-haired god like him was interested in her although Lily had told her she was very pretty.

  The painful memories almost made her cry. Well, she fell in love and spent the rest of the week in his caravan. When it was time to come home, he gave her his address in Glasgow, promising to come and see her as soon as possible as he loved her like she loved him.

  She waited on him to write but nothing ever came although she made excuses for him. Maybe he was looking after his grandmother and didn’t have time to get in touch.

  It was a month later when she knew she was having a baby but when she wrote to him, the letter came back, saying there was no address like this in Glasgow and she never heard from him again.

  One day Bernard found her trying to swallow tablets as she dreaded becoming an unmarried mother and when he asked her why she was being so stupid, she told him the whole story. She had been crying bitterly, not only because of the baby but the fact that Sandy had told her a pack of lies. Bernard later came and said he would marry her and give the child a name.

  She couldn’t believe it and told him he should think about marrying someone he loved but he said there was no one in his life, so they got married right away and when Sadie was born he adored her. Because she couldn’t name a girl Sandy she chose Sadie which was as near as she could get. Bernard would take her out in her pram for walks and when she was a bit older they would go to the park or the beach on a Sunday. Maryanne thought her life had turned around until the fateful day when Bernard was taken ill.

  He had been injured in the Great War and developed tuberculosis. She recalled the dreadful weeks before he died. After the funeral, she found out she had inherited the shop which she ran until Sadie was four years old. She was a wayward child with a temper and Maryanne couldn’t be working and coping with her. So she sold up but unfortunately the shop was rented which meant she only got the goodwill sale on it as the new owner bought over all the stock.

  Bernard had rented the house they lived in which was above the shop and when she found the rent was too dear they moved to Meadow Lane. She found Sadie very hard to bring up because of her nature but she marvelled at what a lovely child she was. Lots of people commented on it which went to Sadie’s head.

  Maryanne was glad when she got engaged to the Ronaldson boy but when she announced she was going to be a GI bride, her mother was worried. She didn’t think it would last and she had been proved right.

  For years she had suppressed the memory of her past life but, seeing Eddie today, it had all flooded back. She took the back of her wedding photo off and brought out a snapshot taken in Blackpool. It showed the tall, handsome, blond Sandy smiling at the camera. Sadie had looked so like him that she had been reminded of her folly every day until Sadie’s death.

  Now she saw that Eddie was also the spitting image of his natural grandfather and it worried her until she realised he was nothing like Sandy in nature. He was kind and considerate and very, very clever. He was beginning his new life with Evie, who Maryanne had always liked, and he had a good father and grandfather in Ed and Joel. Esther, after she married Ed, had also made him the man he turned out to be.

  She placed her wedding photo of Bernard and herse
lf on the table by the side of the fireplace. She couldn’t remember looking so young but she was amused by her outfit and the faded-looking flowers. She had grown to love her husband over the few years they had together and she always remembered him with love.

  She then put Sadie and Ed’s wedding photo beside it. Bernard might not have been her natural father but he was better than that. He was a man who had looked after and loved her until he died just as she had done. She loved Sadie and she always would, in spite of all the rows and bitterness.

  She glanced once more at the faded photo of the handsome Sandy who had turned that week in Blackpool into a nightmare but that had been her fault, not Sadie’s. For years she had watched her daughter look more and more like him and she had despaired.

  She knelt down by the fireside and put a match to it, setting it alight. The last part to burn was his face and golden hair. She knew she would take this secret to her grave and she suddenly felt better as if the burning of the photo had released all the pent up emotions she had suffered from over the years.

  Ed and Esther wanted her to come and live in America and maybe she would go. Yes, perhaps one of these days.