Authors: Lorna Byrne
Joe gave me a big hug and said, 'Let's make arrangements to
meet the parish priest and set a date for our wedding.'
Joe's family was completely different from mine, as far as
our wedding was concerned. Joe's mum asked me which
friends I was going to invite and I told her that I would love
to ask Pauline, Valerie and Mary from work, but I didn't know
what they would think about me having the wedding
reception in the house. I told her, 'Since I started work in the
department store, several girls have got married and they
all have had their receptions in hotels. Mum is set on having
it in the house, and I don't want to hurt her by telling her that
I am disappointed at that idea. Joe and I have agreed we
don't want our wedding to cost my parents much money, if
possible.'
Joe's mum replied, 'Don't worry, we will all chip in.'
Then everything seemed to begin to fall into place. A few
weeks later, in the canteen at work having lunch with Valerie
and Mary, they asked me had I set a date for the wedding and
I told them, 'Yes, the 18th of August, and you're invited.'
They were delighted and asked where the reception was
going to be held. I told them it wasn't decided yet; I didn't want
to tell them that it was going to be at my house.
Later that day I asked Pauline to be my bridesmaid: she said
it would be an honour. I told her that Joe's sister Barbara would
make her dress.
I started to encourage Joe to look for a job somewhere else, to
be independent. I said that we needed to stand on our own two
feet. 'Talk to Da. I know he will give you a good reference.'
Joe got another job, no problem, this time working in CIE
(the Irish public transport company). With the new job, Joe
could not pick me up after work as often as he used to, so most
evenings I got the bus home. One particular evening, as I
walked round to the back entrance of the house, I knew
something was going to happen.
I noticed Da's newspaper
The Irish Press
on the dining room
table.When the angels asked me to open it I was reluctant, but
I pulled out a chair, sat down at the table and started to turn
the pages. My hands were trembling; I seemed to be moving in
slow motion. I was afraid the angels were going to highlight
something in the paper which would be distressing.
'Don't be afraid, Lorna,' my angels said, 'just turn the pages
and we'll tell you when to stop.'
I was turning the pages slowly, one at a time. I could feel my
Angel Hosus's hand on my shoulder.
'Now,' he whispered in my ear, 'look at the houses for sale.'
I looked, there were hundreds of houses for sale and I
couldn't make sense of anything on the page, everything was
upside down and turned around. I looked up from the paper
to see a crowd of angels sitting around the table.What a sight!
It made me smile.
'Hello,' said Angel Elijah, sitting directly opposite me. He
reached out for the paper and the tips of his fingers touched
the page. It all immediately became clear. 'Look now, Lorna,'
he said. I could see the words 'Cottage for sale in Maynooth'.
'Lorna, a little cottage with a big garden,' said Elijah, 'It's
perfect for you and Joe. Read on!'
It was a tiny ad with only three lines. I read on: 'For sale, by
auction, and a telephone number'.
'Now, Lorna, put a circle around the advertisement and tear
out the page,' Elijah said. I did, and put the page in my pocket.
'Show the advertisement to your Da when you are ready,'
Elijah said, 'he will be able to help.'
There were tears in my eyes, I was so happy. Angel Elijah
stood up, reached forward and, with the tips of his fingers,
touched my tears. 'Tears of happiness,' he said. Then the
angels were gone.
I showed Joe the advertisement for the cottage in Maynooth
the following day, as we walked along the canal.
'I'll talk to Da when he gets home from fishing this evening,'
I said.
I folded up the paper and put it back in my bag. Later that
evening, when Joe had gone, Da got home from fishing. He put
all his fishing gear on the floor and proudly took two large,
fresh, pink, river trout, one at a time out of the fishing bag and
laid them on the kitchen table. Mum was delighted. When Da
had finished tidying away all his fishing gear, he sat down in
his usual place.
'Da,' I said, 'I saw an advertisement in the paper for a cottage
in Maynooth. It is going up for auction. How do you go about
those things?'
He looked at me quite surprised; he probably thought I
would have no notion of looking for a house. I didn't know
what to think of the look on my Da's face but, without any
hesitation, he said, 'Show me the paper.'
I took the paper out of my bag and laid it in front of him on
the little table. Da asked where the ad was.
'I have circled it with a black pen. Look, there it is, Da, on
the bottom of the page on the right-hand side.'
Da looked up at me again with a surprised look on his face
– I was standing and he was sitting – and he read it very
carefully before he said anything to me. Then, with a smile on
his face, he said, 'Well done' and then asked, 'Does Joe know
about the ad for the cottage?'
'Yes,' I said, 'when I was with Joe today, I showed him the
paper. We are both excited, but we don't know how to go
about this.'
'First things first: you'll have to get a loan,' Da said.
'Joe and I have money in the bank – should we go there?' I
asked.
'Yes,' he replied, 'and there are other places you could try,
such as the Council, for a housing loan, which would be
cheaper than the bank. Leave the auction to me, I'll ring about
that.'
'Thanks, Da,' I said. I was delighted Da was helping us, and
I was very excited at the possibility of buying the cottage.
The next day I was off work and I walked down to the
telephone kiosk and rang the local council and told them I was
inquiring about a loan for a young married couple. I said we
were not married yet, but we would be. The girl said she would
send out the forms. I thanked her and hung up. Next thing, I
rang Da and he told me he had enquired about the auction. It
was in two days' time, so if we were interested we needed to go
and see the cottage as soon as possible. He suggested that
evening.
I left a message at Joe's work for him to come straight to
Leixlip. I was so excited, I ran home to the house and told
Mum what Da said. 'Don't get your hopes up too high,' she
said. 'It's not that easy to get a loan, and you and Joe don't have
much money.'
Joe and Da arrived at the house within five minutes of each
other that evening. Da said there was no time for dinner as the
power in the cottage was not on and we needed to look at it
while there was daylight.
We all got into Da's car, Mum as well, and drove to the
cottage; it was about a fifteen-minute drive.
When we pulled up alongside the little cottage we could
hardly see it, as the hedge was so tall. The gate was locked and
Da called into the next-door neighbour, as the auctioneer had
told him to, and got the keys. Da opened the gates and handed
the keys to Joe. The garden was big, all overgrown –
enormously overgrown. We walked up the path to the little
cottage. Joe put the key in the door and turned the lock. As he
opened the door, a horrible stale smell hit us; it was musty and
damp, clearly nobody had lived there for quite some time. The
cottage was tiny, but Joe and I did not mind that, if only we
could buy it.
As we walked around the cottage, Joe and I told Da that we
were concerned about the auction – what would happen if we
succeeded in getting the cottage, wouldn't the auctioneers
want a deposit? Did we need to take cash out of the bank in
advance, as we did not have a chequebook? Da said that if
everything went well, he would pay the deposit on the day and
we could pay him back later. Every so often I would walk back
into one of the little rooms on my own, in order to talk to the
angels in silence about all of the things on my mind.
As I walked through the rooms with Joe, Mum and Da, the
angels kept pulling my hair. Mum asked why I was putting my
hands up to my head all the time. Was I making sure there
were no cobwebs in my hair? I smiled to myself at the
question.
We were inside the cottage for only a few minutes, then we
left and Joe pulled the door closed and put the key through the
letterbox next door. While driving home in the car Mum said,
'It is in a terrible condition.'
Da glanced at Mum and then asked us were we still
interested in the cottage. The two of us said 'Yes' together.
That Wednesday morning, at about nine, I left home with
my parents and we picked up Joe. Da stopped outside Joe's
house and said to me, 'You go and knock on the door.' Joe
opened the door, came over to the car and asked my parents if
they would come in for a minute to meet his Mum. They
declined. Nevertheless, I went to her. She wished us the best of
luck and said, 'Another time I'll meet your Mum. We will
invite your parents for dinner some Sunday.' Joe's mum was
dying to meet my parents. She waved goodbye to us from the
door as we drove off.
I sat holding Joe's hand in the car.We never said a word; we
were so anxious and I was constantly praying. Before I knew it,
Da was parking the car.
The auction was taking place in an old hotel.We were early,
so we sat in the hotel lounge to have some tea and relax a little.
I recognised a group of the people sitting in the lounge; I knew
them as customers at the garage: their name was Murphy and
they were builders. Da got up from the table and walked over
to them. I watched Da shaking hands and talking to them.
They bought him a drink and there seemed to be great
conversation and laughter. Da turned around and gave me a
smile. From the look on his face, I knew everything was going
well.
I asked Joe what time it was; it was 10.45 and the auction
was at 11. Just then, Da came back to the table. We were all
dying to hear how he got on. Da asked if we wanted to hear the
good news or the bad news first.
'Good news, please!' I said.
'A number of years ago, when there was a petrol strike, I did
the Murphys a favour by making sure they didn't go short of
diesel or petrol,' Da said. 'Now it's their turn to do me a favour.
I had a good chat with them and told them that you both had
your heart set on buying this cottage.'
None of us had realised that there was land for sale as well
as the cottage; the Murphys' main interest at the auction was
in the land. They wanted the cottage as well, which was up the
lane, to use for offices and parking trucks but, after talking
with Da, they agreed not to go after the cottage themselves and
to do all they could to help us get it.
People started to leave the lounge and walk across the hall
to the room where the auction was being held. The room
wasn't very bright; there were lots of chairs in rows and a desk
and chair at the top of the room. There were maybe about
twenty people there for the auction. We sat in a row halfway
down on the right-hand side, and the Murphys were on the
left. There were several lots sold before they got to the cottage;
one of them was the land up the road, which the Murphys
bought.
Eventually, it felt like forever, it came to the cottage, which
was the last lot. The bidding started and a woman put her hand
up and said a price; Da put his hand up and made a higher bid,
then the Murphys named a price; then my Da, and it went on
like that for a little while. The woman gave up and stopped
bidding. Da made a bid and the Murphys made one more but
then stopped. '£2,500,' my Da said, and there were no further
bids. When the auctioneer said 'SOLD!' I felt I could breathe
again.
The auctioneer indicated to Da to come up to him and Da
turned around to Joe and me, saying: 'You two had better come
up as well, seeing as it's you who are buying the cottage.'
The auctioneer asked for Da's name and Da told him with
pride that he was only doing the bidding, that it was Joe and
I who were the buyers. He took our names and looked for the
deposit. Without hesitation, Da said he was taking care of
that.
I remember looking at Da as he took out his chequebook –
at that time a 10 per cent deposit of £250 was a huge amount
of money to me. I felt so much love and affection for my Da as
I watched him writing out the cheque; I was delighted that he
would do this for us and I felt like hugging him.
Da and Mum drove us back to Joe's mother's house. When
we got there his mum was standing at the railings in the
garden, talking to a neighbour. Again, Joe invited Mum and Da
in for a cup of tea; again, my parents declined the invitation.
We got out of the car as Joe's mum reached the gate. My
parents waved goodbye and drove away. We told Joe's mum
the great news straightaway.
'Let's go inside first,' she said, 'tell me the whole story over a
cup of tea: I want to hear every detail and I have just baked
some apple tarts.'
We went into the kitchen and Joe's mum put the kettle on.
There were already cups and saucers, milk, sugar and apple
tarts on the table. As soon as the tea was ready, the three of us
sat at the kitchen table. Joe's mum was so eager to hear every
detail that the conversation went on for some time. There was
always great activity in that house, with family coming and
going. They all wanted to hear the good news about the
cottage. Some of the family said, 'Maynooth – it is so far away.
We will never get familiar with the idea that you will be living
down in the country.' I laughed and said,
'You would think we were moving a million miles away,
instead of about twenty-five miles.'
Joe's mum asked, 'When can I go down and help you to
clean out the cottage?'
Joe looked at me and I said, 'The weekend after next is my
long weekend off.' Joe said he was off that Saturday as well, so
we agreed to meet at the cottage on that Saturday morning.
Shortly afterwards Joe brought me home. We were both very
excited about everything that happened that day.
A few days after buying the cottage, Joe and I decided to
walk to Maynooth from Leixlip and start work on cleaning it
up. We were very excited and when we arrived, the gate was
open.We searched for the key and it took us some time to find
it. Eventually, Joe found it under a stone at the far end of the
cottage.
Our new next-door neighbours must have heard us, as a lady
came to the gate and shouted, 'Hello there, I'm from next door.'
'Hello,' I called as I went towards the gate, 'I'm Lorna, and
we're hoping to live here after we get married in six months'
time.'
'That's absolutely wonderful.' She said with a big smile, 'It
will be great to have neighbours. I'm Elizabeth.'
I invited Elizabeth in and we walked up the completely
overgrown drive and turned to the right along the cottage wall
to the main door. Joe was standing there and I introduced him
as my fiancé. She was delighted to meet him.
'You look like a lovely couple!' she said.
I invited Elizabeth in to see the house and Joe turned the
key. We continued talking as we went in.
'I dread the thought of you seeing how bad the inside of the
cottage is,' Elizabeth said. 'It has been empty for such a long
time now. The old lady who lived here, Mrs Costello, died a
long time ago.'