Forget-Me-Not Child. Anne Bennett
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Mary was delighted to be asked but she noted the jealous way Betty held on to the child. While she was willing for Mary to take him from her and hold his head over the font so that the priest could dribble water over it, she took him back afterwards and would let no one else, not even his own father, hold him and Mary felt the first stirrings of unease. Stan on the other hand was pleased initially to leave everything to Betty and for Daniel to be taken back to their fine house in Sutton Coldfield after the christening.
‘Where is Sutton Coldfield?’ Mary asked Matt a few weeks later
‘I’m not sure myself,’ Matt said. ‘I know it’s a fair distance and a posh place, so Stan was telling me. He said Betty and Roger live in a big house built of red brick with a blue slate roof. And although it’s not on the doorstep it’s easy enough to get to because a little steam train runs from New Street Station and then the station in Sutton is just yards from their house.’
‘He’s going to see him soon isn’t he?’
Matt nodded. ‘This Saturday afternoon,’ he said. ‘He’ll have been with them nearly three weeks then and he wants to see how he has settled down and everything.’
Later Stan talked to Matt about how it had gone. ‘Tell you, Matt, when I saw him, I had the urge to grab him and bring him home where he belongs. But how could I care for him and work? Betty, on the other hand, already has the nursery fitted out for him, which is far more salubrious than any attic bedroom I could provide. There’s also a garden back and front and I could see much better surroundings unfolding for Daniel if I left him there with his aunt and uncle, though I know he will probably call them mammy and daddy and will grow up thinking of them as his parents.’
‘Like Angela did?’
‘Ah but, the difference was she was told from the start who her real parents were and that they had both died, which was the truth, but Daniel has a father, though he will hardly be aware of that.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because Betty said it would confuse the boy if I kept popping up every now and then, and it wasn’t as if I could offer him anything. She told me that if I cared for the boy I should stay out of his life and let them bring him up. The point is I know I can offer the child nothing, but I still wanted to see him, take him out weekends, you know, get to know him a bit, but Betty said if I intended doing that I would have to make alternative arrangements. She would only look after Daniel as long as I stayed away.’
Mary sighed when Matt told her that night what had transpired when Stan had gone to see his son. She wasn’t totally surprised. She had thought Betty was the type of person who wouldn’t want to share her dead sister’s child. In a way in her mind she was probably trying to forget he had parents and make believe that he was her own child she had given birth to.
In Mary’s opinion secrets like this were not healthy and they had a way of wriggling to the fore eventually, spreading unhappiness and distrust. ‘That’s very harsh,’ she said. ‘I mean at the moment it’s hard on Stan, but the longer Betty and her husband leave telling Daniel of his father, the greater the shock for the child. Stan might not be able to care for him and work, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be part of his life. I think he’s a lovely man and I’m sure the child as he grows would benefit from knowing him.’
‘I couldn’t agree more,’ Matt said. ‘He said Betty was adamant. I think I might call her bluff in time. If she loves Daniel like he says she’d not want to give him up so easy, but Stan probably won’t want to risk it.’
‘Does he miss him?’
‘I asked him that myself,’ Matt said. ‘I suppose that what you never had you can’t miss but Stan said he always feels like something is missing and he copes because he knows Daniel will be happy and well loved, for Betty dotes on him and her husband does too, only slightly less anxiously. He said he would never have to worry that they would ever be unkind to him and he will want for nothing – no going barefoot with an empty belly for him. As long as the boy is happy that’s all that matters to Stan.’
‘That’s what most parents want,’ Mary said. ‘Their children’s happiness, and he is a decent man for putting the needs of his son before his own.’
Angela was unaware of what had happened to Stan’s baby. She knew about the death of his wife giving birth to the child, that couldn’t be hidden from the children, but the baby had just seemed to disappear. Even Maggie living only doors away from Stan Bishop knew no more. It was no good asking questions because things like that were not discussed in front of children so the girls concluded the baby must have died too. ‘Shame though, isn’t it, for Stan to lose his wife and baby.’
‘Mm,’ Maggie said. ‘Though I don’t think men are that good at looking after babies.’
‘No, maybe not,’ Angela agreed. ‘I just feel sorry for him being left with nothing. Doesn’t seem fair somehow.’
‘My mammy says none of life is fair and those that think it is are going to be disappointed over and over,’ Maggie said and Angela thought that a very grim way of looking at things.
Stan seemed to get over the loss of his wife in the end as everyone must, but for ages a pall of sadness hung over him. Barry started on the apprenticeship scheme in 1907, the same year his brother Sean finished, and Stan’s sadness wasn’t helped by the news he had to impart to Mary. ‘He was heartbroken when he came to tell me that the boys would have no job at the end of their apprenticeships,’ Mary told Norah. ‘Sean is out of work now like his older brothers and I suppose Gerry will be the same in two years’ time. Stan said he could do nothing about it because it was the company’s policy. It was a bit of a blow but not a total shock because that sort of thing is happening everywhere.’
‘I know but it isn’t as if they can get a job somewhere else using the skills they have learnt because there are no jobs.’
‘Aye that’s the rub,’ Mary said. ‘And now there’ll be another mouth to feed on the pittance they will be able to earn. I mean you can only tighten a belt so far. And when Gerry is finished too in two years’ time God knows what we are going to do.’
‘I’m the same,’ Norah said, ‘and this has decided me.’
‘What?’
‘My eldest Frankie is just eighteen so half-way through his apprenticeship and my brother Aiden was after writing to me, offering to find him a job in the place he works. They’re taking a lot of young lads on.’
‘But Aiden is in the States?’
‘I know, New York.’
‘But … But surely to God you don’t want your son going so far away?’
‘Course I don’t,’ Nora said. ‘What I want is for him to get a job somewhere local and meet a nice Catholic girl to marry and give me grandchildren to take joy from. But it’s not going to happen, not here. I know when we bid farewell that will be it and I’ll never see my son again but I can’t deny him this chance of a future. I see your lads day after day worn down by the fact they can get no job. Unemployment is like a living death and how can I put Frankie through that when Aiden is holding out the hand of opportunity to him?’
She couldn’t, Mary recognized that, but she knew Norah’s heart would break when her eldest son went away from her. And though her own heart ached for her sons she couldn’t help feeling glad that they had no sponsor in America.
Unbeknownst to her, though, Finbarr and Colm were very interested in Frankie Docherty’s uncle’s proposal. ‘He seems very certain he will have a job for you,’ Finbarr said.
‘Yes he is.’
‘What line of work is it?’
‘Making