by Lesley Crewe
“Peter, the baby’s coming on Michael’s mattress!”
Peter grunted and shook his head before he wiped the sleep from his eyes. “Michael’s mattress?”
“Forget the fucking mattress—Ashley’s having the baby!”
“Okay, calm down.”
“You calm down!”
“I am calm, Gertie.” Peter struggled to sit up in bed. “The baby isn’t coming on Michael’s mattress because we’re going to get dressed and take Ashley to the hospital.”
Gertie jumped around. “So what do I do?”
“You get dressed and tell Ashley to get dressed and I’ll get dressed and we’ll go.”
“I’d better call Matt.”
Peter put his hand on Gertie’s arm. “I’ll call Matt. You’ll frighten the life out of him.”
Ashley appeared at the bedroom door, dressed and carrying her suitcase.
“Why are you two still in your pyjamas?”
When they were ready and about to leave, Gertie looked at Jeffrey. “I forgot to feed the cat!”
“I think we should go,” Peter said.
Gertie booted it down the hall and grabbed the mega-sized bag of cat chow, but in her rush, she spilled it all over the kitchen floor. “Oh my God!”
“Forget it. Let’s go.”
Gertie rushed back down the hall and they trooped out to the car. Peter put Ashley in the front seat and tucked a blanket around her.
“You’re not having any pain, are you?” Peter asked quietly.
“Only when I breathe. Is that bad?”
He shut the car door and shouted at Gertie. “Get in the car now!”
She climbed behind the wheel and it was amazing how fast Peter got into the back seat, cast and all. As Gertie sped down the highway, she fretted. “Jeffrey’s going to blow up if he eats all that food.”
“I’ll buy you another cat.”
“Peter!”
Ashley cried out and leaned over in her seat. “Oh, this is getting worse.”
“It’s getting worse!” Gertie repeated.
“You’re fine,” Peter said. “This is supposed to happen. Take deep breaths in and out.”
Ashley began breathing but another pain hit her. Again she cried out and then reached over the seat to grab Peter’s hand.
“Call my moms.”
When the phone rang, Bay wasn’t surprised. She’d had a funny feeling all day and was lying in bed thinking about Ashley. But just because she wasn’t surprised didn’t mean she was prepared.
“She’s having contractions?!” she shouted into the phone at Peter.
“Don’t worry, Bay. We’re ten minutes out of Sydney. We’ll get her there in time.”
“What do I do now?”
“Get dressed and come to the hospital.”
Bay paced by the bed. “I don’t think I can drive. I’m shaking.”
“I’ll call Dermot. He’ll drive you and Tansy to the hospital.”
“Yes, yes. Good plan.”
Bay ran around her bedroom opening and closing bureau drawers. “What do you wear when you’re about to be a grandmother?” Because she couldn’t think, she threw on the clothes she’d taken off just hours before. Then into the bathroom to splash water on her face and brush her teeth. A quick brush through her hair and she was ready. She was halfway down the stairs when she realized she’d forgotten her purse. Did she need her purse? Yes. You always need your purse. It was on the dresser and as Bay grabbed it, her eyes fell on the picture of her mother. She reached out and took it with her.
Bay was bundled up outside in the frosty air when she saw headlights come along the main road. When they turned up her street, she ran down the driveway and jumped up and down until Dermot pulled the truck up to the curb. Tansy opened up the door for her and Bay hopped into the truck.
“It’s happening!” Bay said.
“I know!” Tansy said.
They both looked at Dermot. “Hurry up!”
Matt was waiting outside the hospital doors with a wheelchair when Gertie and Peter pulled up in the car. Matt opened the passenger door and was met with a screech from Ashley. “This is all your fault!”
Peter and Gertie got out of the car and helped Matt put her in the chair.
“How did you get here so fast?” Gertie asked him.
“He didn’t stop to feed a cat,” Ashley yelled. “Peter, don’t leave me!”
“I won’t.” He took Ashley’s hand and limped beside her into the hospital, with Matt pushing the chair.
Gertie wrung her hands behind them. “So what do I do?”
Peter looked back. “Go park the car and wait here for Tansy and Bay.”
Ashley shouted over her shoulder. “I don’t want to see them. Not until I say so. Have you got that?”
“Got it.” Gertie ran back to the car.
When a doctor checked Ashley she was almost fully dilated. Matt was with her in the room while Peter paced outside. Then the door opened and Matt appeared wearing a hospital gown, holding Ashley’s hand as the medical team wheeled her to the delivery room. He looked like he was about to faint. He mouthed, “Help me.”
Once Ashley laid eyes on Peter, she held out her other hand. “You have to come with us! I can’t do this without you.” She gasped when another pain hit.
A nurse approached him with a hospital gown. “Here, put this on. We don’t get many fathers in the delivery room. It’s usually the moms.”
“She’s got three of those downstairs.”
“You get all sorts these days.” She helped him into the gown.
“I don’t know if I can do this.”
The nurse patted his back. “Just hold her hand and close your eyes.”
When Dermot pulled the truck up to the hospital, Bay and Tansy were out the door before he even stopped. Gertie was there to greet them, stamping her feet to keep warm.
“Why aren’t you with her?” Bay shouted.
“She wanted Peter.”
“Peter’s in the delivery room?”
“I don’t know where anyone is at the moment. I’ve been waiting down here for you.”
“We have to get up there.” Bay ran to the hospital door with Tansy sprinting behind her.
“Wait!” Gertie shouted.
They kept going.
A sharp whistle from Dermot stopped them in their tracks. They turned around. “Bay, Gertie’s trying to tell you something.”
Bay looked at her. “What is it?”
“Ashley doesn’t want to see either of you until she says so.”
Dermot pointed at them. “Have you got that? Now calm down and do as you’re told.”
At that moment, Ashley was pushing with all her might. Peter was on one side of her head and Matt was on the other, both of them with their eyes closed. She had their hands in a vice grip. Their fingers were turning lovely shades of white and blue.
As the doctor told her to bear down once more, Ashley shouted at Matt, “You’re never touching me again, do you hear me!?”
Peter opened one eye to see Matt look at him with dismay. Peter whispered over her head. “She didn’t mean that.”
“I did so…ooohhhhhhh!!”
And then it was over.
Fred gave a little cry and the doctor put him in his mother’s arms. That made his mother cry and his father cry and his uncle Peter cry. They were one big crying machine. Eventually Peter turned to Matt.
“You should go down to the waiting room and put the mothers out of their misery.”
Matt rushed down the hall and the minute he appeared in the waiting room doorway, Bay, Tansy, Gertie, and Dermot rose as one.
“We have a son.”
The three women rushed towards Matt like a tidal wave of screeching maternal love. He was enveloped in a sea of arms and lifted right off the ground. He didn’t mind one bit.
It was about an hour later that Matt came back in and said Ashley would like to see them. Dermot stayed where he was.
Matt went
on ahead. Tansy and Bay held hands as they approached the room, but neither one dared look at the other. Gertie was behind them. They walked in to see their daughter holding her baby as Peter and Matt stood protectively beside her. Before they had a chance to react, Ashley put up her hand.
“I don’t want a huge scene. I’m tired and it’s too much. I love you guys and I forgive you and I forgive Nana. But you have to promise there are no more lies between us. Ever.”
Bay and Tansy promised.
“Now if you can act like normal people, come meet your grandson.”
They tiptoed over and all three women squished up their faces in delight as they looked at the most beautiful baby in the world. They gushed quietly and hugged Peter to thank him for all he’d done. Ashley let Bay and Tansy kiss her on the cheek, and she gave Gertie a big hug.
By now Peter couldn’t hide the fact that his leg was bothering him, so he sat in the chair by the bed. Ashley handed Matt the baby and he in turn put the baby in Peter’s arms. It was quite a sight to see that 280-pound man hold a six-pound newborn.
Matt cleared his throat. “Peter, Ashley and I don’t know what we would have done without you and Gertie this past month. You sat in an uncomfortable chair with a cast on your leg, eight hours a day for two weeks, and then sat in an apartment with her for another two weeks. That’s why we’d like to name our son after you and ask you and Gertie to be his godparents.”
Well, that did it.
Any sense of decorum was forgotten in the melee of hugs and kisses that followed. Things were just calming down when Ashley made the mistake of telling them Peter’s full name.
Peter Robert Ian Gillis.
Baby Peter and his mother went to live at Bay’s house. Tansy went to live at Dermot’s house. Big Peter went to live at Gertie’s house. Matt went to live at his house but spent most of his time over at Bay’s house. And Ashley was sick of it.
Not that she didn’t want him there all the time, but she knew Matt suffered in silence because of his parents and their head-in-the-sand attitude. They congratulated him, of course, and had seen pictures of Peter, but that’s where it stood. Matt told Ashley he heard his father on the phone one night telling a friend the baby’s name and he thought his dad sounded rather proud. It confirmed what Ashley knew in her heart. Ruth was the culprit holding up the works.
So one day she bundled Peter up in his snowsuit and packed a diaper bag and two bottles of breastmilk and told her mother she’d be back in a minute. She left before Bay could ask her where she was going. When she got to Matt’s house she took Peter out of his car seat, held him in her arms, and walked up to the front door. She rang the bell.
When Matt’s mother opened the door, she plunked Peter and the diaper bag into Ruth’s arms. “I’ll be back in three hours.”
Ashley got in the car and went home.
That was the end of the problem.
Two weeks later it was Christmas. Bay invited everyone over to her house for a big Christmas dinner. There were eighteen of them altogether. Bay, Ashley, Matt, and baby Peter. Then there were Tansy and Dermot and Gertie and big Peter and his mother, Dorothy. Also Ruth and Ian and Matt’s brother, Adam, and his girlfriend, May Ling. Peter’s brother, Michael, and his three children came too, because it was his turn to have them for Christmas and he usually spent it with his brother, but since Peter was coming here, Bay invited Michael and family too. Maribeth and her new boyfriend, Ryan, came for dessert after dinner with her parents, making twenty.
And although it was crowded and noisy and confusing, and Merlin got into the turkey carcass, it was the best Christmas Bay and Tansy could remember.
They waited until June to have Peter christened. It was a glorious Sunday. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. The entire family descended on the church in their finery, having walked to the church en masse. Bay was having everyone back to the house for a summer luncheon afterwards. Dorothy and Michael had cameras at the ready for big Peter’s big day and Gertie bought an outfit that wasn’t from the Sears catalogue.
During the ceremony, baby Peter was not impressed when the minister poured water on his head. He pouted and cried and held his arms out to big Peter. Of course everyone thought that was adorable.
As they walked home, Michael and Bay found themselves side by side at one point. They smiled at each other.
“You know,” Michael said, “I watched Peter and Gertie on the altar today and I had a premonition that someday we’d be at their wedding.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute.”
He leaned closer. “Actually it’s more than a premonition. Peter asked Mom about our grandmother’s engagement ring.”
Bay grabbed his arm in excitement. “I won’t breathe a word. Oh, how wonderful.”
“You love her, don’t you?” he laughed. “Of course, what’s not to love?”
Bay grew pensive. “Gertie was the glue when our world became unglued. She hung in there and wouldn’t let us give up on each other. I can never repay her for what she’s done for my daughter, my sister, and I. She’s living proof that family isn’t about bloodlines. It’s about one heart connecting to another. It’s as simple as that.”
“In my line of work,” Michael replied, “I see families interact all day under stressful situations and often it’s not pretty. But I have to say, I was impressed with the way all of you handled the crisis last winter. I’m proud of my little brother. He’s someone I look up to. It hasn’t been easy since the divorce, dealing with the hurt and heartache my own kids have gone through. But seeing the way your friends and family rallied around each other gives me hope that my kids and I will weather the storm and not be crushed by it.”
“You’ll be fine, Michael. I’ve seen you with your kids. You’re a great dad.”
“You don’t think I’m too mean?”
She looked at him and laughed. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”
“Nope. Well, there’s one way that might happen.”
“Oh?”
“If you agree to have dinner with me one night.”
Bay smiled. “I’d like that.”
The luncheon was a success. All three of Peter’s grandmothers took turns feeding him a tiny bit of vanilla ice cream on a spoon while cameras clicked. Then there was a more formal picture with the happy parents and godparents. It turned out so well that Bay had it enlarged and gave it to Gertie for her birthday.
Ruth and Dorothy offered to do the dishes. Gertie took little Peter upstairs for his nap while Ashley and Maribeth got caught up on the latest gossip. Dermot, big Peter, Michael, Matt, Adam, and Ian settled in front of the television to watch the rest of the ball game.
That left Bay and Tansy free to wander outside, sit on their mother’s swing, and enjoy the late afternoon sun.
“Did Ashley tell you that she wants to take that cosmetology course in September?”
“Yes,” Tansy replied. “She mentioned it to both Ruth and I. I’ll be lucky if I can pry Peter out of Ruth’s hands. She wants to babysit him every day. I said I’d be happy to help out, but you know that woman. She’s so damn stubborn. For someone who didn’t want this baby to come into the world she’s awfully glad he’s here.”
“It’s kind of sweet,” Bay said. “I know it pleases Matt no end.”
“What are his plans now?”
“He’s starting at NSCC in September. That two-year electrician course. He’ll get plenty of work with his uncle when he’s finished. Ashley told me he’d thought about going away to the police academy, but couldn’t bring himself to leave her or the baby behind.”
“I’m glad for them both.”
“Speaking of leaving, are you and Dermot going away on holiday this summer?”
“No, there’s too much work to do around the house. I’ve nagged him for weeks to start scraping the kitchen cabinets so I can paint them. He’s already ripped up the carpet in the hallway and living room. We’re going to put hardwood in. I thin
k that will make a big difference.”
“Sounds positively domestic.”
Tansy grinned. “If only dear old scumbag Charles could see me now, up to my eyeballs in bleach and furniture polish and loving every minute of it.”
“The reason I ask is that I wondered if you’d help me plant Mom’s garden. She and I did it every year and I hated doing it alone last summer.”
“I’d love to, but you can decide what to plant. I’m not good at that kind of thing.”
Just then Flo came outside to hang out her towels. She saw the Gillis sisters on their swing.
“Hi, Bay.”
“Hi, Flo.”
“Hi, Flo,” Tansy shouted.
Flo ignored Tansy. Instead she loudly muttered that rude people would be the death of her.
Tansy turned to her sister. “I do have to plant one thing.”
“What?”
“I need one pumpkin.”
“Just one?”
“Yeah.”
“What can you do with one pumpkin?”
Tansy looked at Flo. “I’ll think of something.”
A READER’S GUIDE TO
Her Mother’s Daughter
BY LESLEY CREWE
There are many themes in Her Mother’s Daughter, but arguably the most important is secrecy and its effect on relationships. What are some of the examples of secrets affecting relationships in this book?
What are some of the other themes Crewe explores in this novel?
The swing and the garden are central motifs in Her Mother’s Daughter. What do they represent to the Gillis family? What do they signify to the reader?
Who was your favourite character in this novel? Why?
The novel takes place in Louisbourg, Cape Breton. How do you think the setting affected the storyline? What elements might have been different if the Gillis family lived in a big city? What would have stayed the same?
Ashley becomes pregnant as a teenager, and chooses to have and raise her baby. Did she receive good advice and guidance from the adults in her life? Would you have given her different advice?
