FAREWELL PHILADELPHIA
by
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While she enjoyed the way of life in Philadelphia, Catherine always felt a terrible ache for home. She would sit on the veranda outside her bedroom and close her eyes and visualise the humble thatched cottage. She could smell the pigs crubeens and cabbage cooking for dinner and the aroma of freshly baked apple tart. Or it could be the smell of treacle bread mingled with the fresh milk coming from the cow's teats at milking time. The moon is full and there is a fox barking in the distance across the bog. The atmosphere inside the cottage is a sight to behold! The turf is burning brightly and the kettle hung from the black shiny crane. A newborn lamb was asleep in a cardboard box by the fire, while a child is nursing a small bird with a splinter on its leg. A small child is peeping out from the cailleach bed, while a ginger cat sat washing his face. Half a pig hung up on one of the rafters. The sheepdog rounds the corner of the house barking furiously needing to inspect an intruder. On hearing the racket, Father gets up from his knees to look out the half door. "Goodnight to you whoever you are" he calls out. "Come on in we are just saying the Rosary. Kneel down there and say a decade with us." In the middle of the prayers mother gets up to look at the treacle cake in the cast oven, in case it was burning. She would need it later on, as they had promised a card game for the pig's head! Many a fright the children got as they watched the adults play, when one of them would give an almighty thump on the table and roar "the devil scald you!" It was all very innocent and no harm intended.
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About the Book
In April 1924, the 'Carmania' set sail from Cobh, Co. Cork bound for Philadelphia. Catherine Brennan was one of the many passengers on board, who hoped to make her fortune. Her life story unfolds at the age of 22 meeting the bold Maurice Fitzgerald on board ship - her 6 years living with the rich in Philadelphia and returning to the west of Ireland to seek a husband through a matchmaker. This novel tells of the ups and downs of rearing a large family through 50 years of marriage. It features the fascination and reality of matchmaking, written as was spoken, full of Irish wit and natural humour, in times when entertainment was free and kissing the opposite sex had to be confessed to a priest. In 1965, Sally Staunton was left an orphan. Now married with a son, she desperately needs to know what happened to her parents. Reared by Catherine since she was four, all she was told was they died in tragic circumstances. It was a time shrouded in secrecy. Sally tries to get Catherine who now suffers from Alzheimers disease, to tell her life story before total senility takes over her beloved grandmother.
About the Author
Born in 1944, the youngest of eight children, married to her husband Tom for 43 years. They have three daughters and three sons and nine grandchildren. She currently lives in Castlebar, Co Mayo, Ireland. This is her first novel which is based on a true story. Nancy is happy to "Share The Care" by giving contributions from royalties received from sales of this book to Western Alzheimers, Ballindine, Co. Mayo, to help support hundreds of families receive 'home from home' care that suffer from Alzheimers Disease in the West of Ireland.