by Gina Amos
Kevin had an excellent memory. He was not a religious man although he recited biblical verses to himself as he painted, when his mind was lucid and his body relaxed. He made a point when visiting the Blake sisters, to recite a verse to them and they appeared to enjoy his ‘pearls of wisdom’ as they called them. He had warned the Blake sisters and Rose Phillips many times, that their stubbornness and pride would lead to trouble one day.
Kevin felt a strong sense of responsibility towards his elderly neighbours. He felt sorry for them, especially as they led such lonely and insignificant lives. With no family to speak of, he felt it was his duty to keep a watchful eye on them; he wanted to make sure they were coping with their lives and did his best to make them comfortable, just as he had done with Nora, his elderly mother.
Kevin Taggart had not known his father, he was absent from his life from its very beginning. His mother was a proud woman who strongly believed in the will of God. A religious woman, her flat, cold, eyes looked out onto the world with a great deal of displeasure. She wore a perpetual scowl on her face. Hers was a life filled with disappointments, the biggest disappointment being her son, Kevin, and she had never missed an opportunity to tell him so.
A personality disorder was suggested in hushed tones to Kevin by well-meaning people who tried to help him deal with his difficult mother. Kevin was with her, when in her eighty-first year, she suddenly died. He hoped for her sake that if there was such a place as the next life, that it would be a great deal more satisfactory to her than the one she had lived with him in Eden Street.
