Really hot day where we sat under the shade of various umbrellas in Jack and Joan's garden. Only eight of us today.
Joan E gave an account of winter on a farm. I wrote a story about a henpecked husband agreeing to take a puppy. Rosmarie told us about forbidden pleasures. Sally gave a graphic account of a good time girl being strangled. Ann's story involved midnight feasts and ginger beer. Sheila told a story about her her precocious grandson. John told of young men getting together. Joan Read got the most votes.
Concealed the Facts
Christine McGuire opened and read the e-mail from her cousin Maeve and sat down with a shock she knew in that moment that her life was about to change again for the third time. The first was in 1956 in Ireland where she lived with her parents who where devout Catholics as she was coming home one night she was assaulted and as a result found herself pregnant even though it was not her fault her mother sent her to a clinic run by nuns. It was a very hard life and over the 9 months as she felt the baby move and grow she started to look forward to the birth, her little girl was born May 1st so she called her Maisy she was beautiful. One week after she was born Sister Mary came and told Christine that her parents had put the baby up for adoption and that she would be leaving to go to a family the following day. She was told that as she was only fifteen she had no choice Christine cried and begged them to let her keep her daughter but the next morning when she woke Maisy was gone. Her father came to get her the same day to take her home she never said a word to him but she knew what she was going to do. She waited for them to go to mass on Sunday and then she took £100 from her father's drawer and caught the ferry to England she had never seen or spoken to her parents since. When she arrived in England she had a small suitcase with some clothes and £75 she went to her cousin Maeve who was renting a small flat and she lived there with her for six years in that time she trained to become a nurse at St Ormond's hospital and this is where she met the man she married Jonathan Grant a visiting doctor from the United States. Her life changed for a second time when they married and moved to his home in Kentucky a small ranch, which she loved. They had both been working at the same hospital for 10 years and had made numerous friends but no family to call on as Jonathan said his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was twenty. They had been trying to start a family for a long time but without success and now she had to tell him about Masie she had always concealed the facts from him scared of what he might say but now she had no choice this was made plain in the e-mail. Her daughter now 16 needed a bone marrow transplant and her adopted parents had managed to obtain her birth certificate with Christines name on it and from that had contacted her parents and they in turn phoned Maeve, she thought to herself did she really want her life to change again she could just tell Jonathan she was going to visit Maeve for a holiday. She glanced at the clock saw that it was 5pm and at that moment Jonathan walked through the door having finished his shift slightly early as they were supposed to be going out. Before she lost her nerve she told him every thing from the time of the attack up until she met him. When she had finished he looked at her picked up his coat and left the house she heard the car start and he was gone. She did not know what to think or do so she just sat and waited she was still there when he came back at 9 o'clock. He crossed the room stood her up and kissed her she burst into tears and he said everything will be OK we will both go to Ireland and see this through and perhaps we will speak to your parents and get to know your daughter but he said there is one thing I have kept from you about my parents my mother is dead that's true but my father is in jail for her murder so you see my love you were not the only one with a secret. They looked at one another and knew that after this no matter what life threw at them they would always cope because of their love.
Next month "ramshackle"
