Mammy walked my sisters and I to the nursery school down Cambria Street with another wee baby in the pram . I remember her whispering under her breath ,
“Jesus we’re going to be late again” and she took me by the hand saver passed the corner .
“Good morning “
said one of the three men who would always be standing
on that same corner .every single day .
“Mammy always nodded and kept walking . After dropping off my sisters we went back down Flax Street and I still remember her say ..
“ Is your stomach still sore son ?“
“Yes “ I said .
“ Well you better not go to school then , you can stay in your grannies, until I finish work ok .“
So she took me and the baby in the pram to my grannies house in Jamaica street and then she went on her way to work .
That morning all
I could do was throw up . I was sent to bed and my Aunt went rushing to get Mammy out of work and she got Doctor Murray to come .
“His appendix needs to come out Mary ‘
He said .
I was taken in an ambulance to the city hospital . for an operation .
As soon as I got there every thing seemed to be done quickly and in desperation . There were other wee boys in there screaming and carrying on .
That evening they took out my appendix and asked if I wanted to take them home in a jar . I wasn’t sure what to say so I asked Daddy when he came to visit me and he said he would take them home in the car .
I didn’t realise that they were all just taking the mickey as there was no need to hang on to my appendix .
Next day I left the hospital and was soon back to myself again after a couple of weeks .
One afternoon Mammy looked a bit worried . I asked her what was the
matter and she said that she had locked up the house and left the key in the kitchen . I followed her as she walked through the gap between McAteers and Joe Soaps house to the back entry and then into back yard door that was always open .
She looked at the top scullery window and it wasn’t locked .
She looked at me and said ,
“Do you think you can get in that window son .“
At the back door , Jacky McAteer from next door came into our back yard and said ,
“Hello is everything ok Mary ?”
Poor Mammy was embarrassed .
“ I locked the house and forgot the key .”
She said and Jacky seemed a wee bit concerned but offered no thoughts of what to do so I climbed up the drain pipe to the window sill then scurried through the window there that was open and falling softly into the kitchen sink inside the house . I felt just like a burglar .
I opened the back door .
Mammy was glad she didn’t have to break the window pane .
Jackie seemed relieved and content that the problem was fixed and went back home again .
Jackie came over later and said to Mammy ,
“Could wee Paul get in the scullery window for me?”
“Sure what happened ?”
Mammy asked .
Jackie replied
“I locked the house and forgot the key”
Is all the little things I remember about Mammy .
Rosetta was born in 1909 as the youngest of ten children. The family had more laughter than money and neighbors would knock on their door to ask, "Can we come in and laugh, too?"
Inside the Methadone Clinic. Addiction to heroin, methadone, and other opiates. Destruction. The primal addiction" of the child, power and control over your own life, the institutions and the characters, the love between a mother and son. This book i
After a long awaited weekend visitation caused by false allegations of sexual abuse, Glen got to see his children for the first time in over two months. He promised them that they would never be apart again and then they disappeared.
