Finishing Touches (46 page)

Laura and Doug were working day and night, but Doug’s business was expanding all the time and Laura was getting her teeth into some meaty business at work. She had been given more
responsibility in the property section of the firm and was actually closing deals.

Martin came home from Iraq for John’s wedding and Cassie had never seen her brother look so well. He was tanned and healthy-looking and making money hand over fist, he confided. He was
going to renew his contract for another term and then come home and set up on his own. She was very pleased for him. Martin had always felt a bit guilty that he wasn’t interested in the
market-gardening the way John was, so it was nice to see him doing his own thing. It was a bit of a surprise when he invited Jean Allen to the wedding. Cassie had thought that romance was all over
when he went to Iraq.

It was nice to get home for the week, but she was glad to be going back to her own house. She had a lot to do with the place and she was anxious to continue her decorating.

When Ann’s and Pauline’s landlady, Winnie, saw Cassie’s redecorated house, she was so impressed she asked her to do her sitting-room and bedroom. Then a friend of
Winnie’s had asked her to do a job on her child’s nursery and it just seemed to go on from there. There was never a time when Cassie was not doing a designing and decorating job for
somebody and she was in her element. Once or twice, things didn’t work out quite as well as she hoped. She remembered with a shudder a lilac bathroom that she had to redo completely. But on
the whole, Cassie was very satisfied with the way her life was going and with all that she had achieved.

Nora was driving herself up the walls! She knew she had BiSoDol indigestion tablets somewhere but she was damned if she could remember where she had put them, and her
indigestion was getting worse. She just couldn’t shift it. She had tried bread soda, Andrew’s Liver Salts, everything. It was most annoying. She had planned to make her Christmas cakes
this evening. After all, it was the beginning of November and she’d want to be getting a move on. This was going to be a special Christmas. Irene’s last one at home and the first for
her brand new grandchild. Barbara’s baby was a little beauty and Nora was thrilled with her. She just wished Barbara would visit with her more often. Nora had been a bit shocked to hear that
Barbara had no intention of giving up her job to look after the baby. Even Judy O’Shaughnessy, who had not become a mother in the most desirable of circumstances, had stayed at home to rear
her child. Not so Barbara. She was going to pay a woman to come in and clean her apartment and take care of her daughter.

Nora thought it was a terrible state of affairs. To have another woman coming in to your house to do your cleaning and rear your child was in her eyes a sign that you had completely failed in
your role as a woman. In her day a woman was expected to keep the home running smoothly and raise the children to the best of her ability and leave the man to bring in the money. All this modern
stuff was not working. One had only to look at the broken homes, the violence of society, the lack of respect of young people towards their elders to see that something was very wrong. If Barbara
called her old-fashioned for her ideas, she didn’t care. Nora knew she was right. She’d like to have seen Jack’s face if she had announced she was off out to get a job. Maybe she
was odd, but she had never felt she was in any way inferior by staying at home to take care of the domestic side of things. Nora had always taken great pride in keeping her house spick-and-span, in
cooking tasty meals for the family, and in watching her children grow up happy and healthy. She had her charity work and community involvement and ladies’ club to stimulate her and she never
felt deprived because she had not had a career outside the home.

Of course, Barbara had never been the most domestic of girls, Nora had to admit. Now she was going so far as brazenly writing in her column that a ‘housewife’ she would never be! In
Nora’s eyes this was nothing to brag about.

Irene would love to be a housewife. She’d love to be married and have children of her own and not have to go out to work. Maybe on this trip to the USA, she’d find a nice man and
settle down. Nora dearly hoped so. She would like to see her youngest daughter taken care of.

For Cassie she had no fears. Cassie would cope with anything that came her way, although it would be nice to see her married. She was thirty next year, getting on a bit, especially if she wanted
to have children. But you couldn’t rush these things. If they happened they happened and since Robbie Cassie showed no signs of wanting to settle down with anybody.

God, she wished this pain would go away. Her chest was getting very tight, as if there were a heavy band around it. She was definitely never eating brown bread and bananas again, after this dose
of indigestion. Nora sat down in Jack’s chair. Irene would be in soon. She’d get her to go to the chemist and buy some antacid tablets. In the meantime she’d just sit down for a
while and rest. Time enough to do the Christmas cakes later. All of a sudden the pain got worse. With a little gasp, Nora slumped over in her chair just as Irene put her key in the front door.

‘When did she have it?’ After hearing the news John had just told her on the telephone, Cassie was shocked and terribly anxious about her mother.

‘Calm down now, Cassie,’ John said reassuringly. ‘She had a
mild
heart attack earlier this evening. She’s in hospital and she’s under
observation.’

‘I’ll get the first flight home I can. It will probably be tomorrow, though.’

‘Look, don’t be worrying, Cassie. She’s sedated now, asleep a lot of the time, so even if you were here she wouldn’t be very aware of it. Ring me tomorrow and tell me
what time your flight gets in. Karen or I will collect you from the airport.’

‘I’ll see you tomorrow, then,’ Cassie said, hanging up the phone. Her poor mother. Nora had never been in hospital in her life, not even to have her babies. She had all her
children at home. She’d hate it!

Nora looked very pale and grey when Cassie finally arrived at the hospital, but her eyes lit up when she saw Cassie and she gave her daughter’s hand a squeeze. ‘There was no need for
you to come home, pet. It was just a bad attack of indigestion. I’ll be fine. There’s no need for me to be in this place at all. Tell them I want to go home.’

‘Now, Mam, just do what the doctors tell you,’ Cassie warned her mother. The doctors confirmed that Nora had suffered a heart attack and that she would have to lose weight and take
more exercise. Cassie knew Nora was going to find the former very difficult. Her mother had a terrible sweet tooth and was always baking tarts, scones and cream sponges, most of which she ended up
eating because Irene and she were the only ones at home.

She was hospitalized for eight days and Cassie took three weeks’ special leave to be with her but she felt that Nora would need a little more time to recuperate. Irene was all for
resigning her job and looking after her mother, but the heart specialist was horrified when he heard this plan.

‘Your mother will make an excellent recovery as there was very little damage to the heart muscles. Resigning is much too drastic a step to take,’ he said firmly to Cassie.
‘Tell your sister to take some leave for a fortnight or so, that’s all she’ll need. I insist you don’t treat your mother like an invalid because she
isn’t
one. She’s responding very well to treatment.’

‘I can’t take leave,’ wailed Irene. ‘I haven’t got any holidays left, and if I take any more sick-leave I’ll end up on half-pay. Why can’t I just resign
and go on the dole? I’ll be going to America in the spring, anyway.’

‘Look, Irene, if Mam thought you’d resigned the job because of her she’d be awfully upset. I really think you should hang on!’ Cassie said firmly.

‘Well, I think it’s a good idea,’ interjected Barbara, who was party to the conversation. ‘
I
certainly can’t look after her. I’ve got my hands full
with the baby.’

‘Nobody is asking you to, Barbara,’ Cassie said shortly, irked by her sister’s attitude. Honestly, you’d think she was being asked to make a huge sacrifice.

‘Well, Karen has offered to come in every day for a few hours and cook Mam’s dinner. We’d have her to stay with us if that were possible but I don’t think the mobile
would be such a great place in the winter,’ John said. ‘She’s begged me not to let her be sent to a nursing home. She really hates hospitals, God love her.’

‘I can’t take any more unpaid leave,’ said Cassie. ‘I’ve got a mortgage to pay at the end of the month. I wonder would Mam come and stay with me for a
while?’

‘Perfect idea!’ Barbara said with satisfaction and Cassie couldn’t help but be amused. Her sister’s selfishness was mind-boggling.

‘I don’t want to be a nuisance to you, pet. Sure I’ll be fine at home,’ Nora exclaimed when she heard Cassie’s proposal.

‘Ah come on, Mam, we’ll have a bit of crack and you’ve never seen the house. I know you’ll love it,’ Cassie wheedled.

‘And what about Christmas? I haven’t a thing done. And what about Irene? She can’t stay here on her own.’

‘For goodness sake, Mam, Irene’s not a baby. She’s a grown woman. And don’t worry about Christmas! You can spend Christmas with me and Irene can fly over when she gets
her holidays,’ Cassie said firmly. ‘Please, Mam, I’d love to have you.’

‘All right then, Cassie, as long as I won’t be putting you out!’ Nora agreed.

Nora loved Cassie’s house and her guest-bedroom decorated in restful greens and cheerful Laura Ashley prints. Nora thought the matching curtains and bedspread so very fetching that Cassie
told her that for her Christmas present, she’d buy her a set for her own room in Port Mahon.

Mindful of the doctor’s advice, Cassie kept a sharp eye on her mother’s diet and cooked only the healthiest of meals, although as a treat she took her to What’s Cooking once a
week and let her have a gooey dessert. Once Nora got back on her feet, they went walking along the prom every evening unless it were raining. Cassie felt a huge sense of satisfaction as she saw the
colour return to her mother’s cheeks. Every day before she went to work, she gave Nora her breakfast in bed and brought her a daily paper. She left a light lunch prepared for her in the
fridge, and then when she came home, she cooked dinner. At the weekend she drove her mother all around the Wirral and brought her to Chester, Birkenhead and Liverpool to do her Christmas
shopping.

Although her social life was dramatically curtailed, Cassie did not begrudge the time spent with her mother. She liked giving her little treats, Nora was so appreciative of everything Cassie did
for her and it was nice showing her around the places that she had grown to love. Nora enjoyed going down Banks Road to do a bit of shopping. There was a hardware store there that she loved
browsing in. Then she would go down into West Kirby itself and into the bookshop by the station or over to Boots or to the flowershops. Cassie was glad she had started going out on her own. Her
mother had got terribly nervous as she got older and she was petrified she was going to get lost. Cassie had photocopied a map from the Wirral A-Z atlas and marked Nora’s route in red biro
for her and that had eased her mother’s fears somewhat.

One evening Cassie arrived home from work to find a terrible smell of burning. Nora was out in the kitchen, almost in tears.

‘I’m awfully sorry, Cassie. I put on a stew for the dinner and I forgot all about it. I’m afraid the saucepan’s burnt.’

‘Don’t worry about it, Mam!’ laughed Cassie. ‘I’m always doing the same thing myself.’

‘I wanted to have a nice dinner ready for you as a treat,’ Nora said in disgust.

‘Ah come on, we’ll go out on the town,’ Cassie decided cheerfully, giving her woebegone mother a hug.

Christmas came and went. Nora was delighted to see Irene and the three of them had a jolly little Christmas together but she was sad watching her daughter leave to go home. She told Cassie that
she felt much better and that she missed Port Mahon and wanted to go home soon. Cassie persuaded her to stay until January was over but she could see that Nora was fine again and she was fretting
and looking forward to going back.

The night before she left, as they sat watching
News at Ten,
Nora turned to her daughter. ‘Cassie, you’ve been very good to me recently and always have been, and I’ll
never forget you for it.’ She leant over and gave Cassie a hug.

Cassie hugged her back. ‘Don’t mention it, Mam. It was nothing!’

‘Oh it was, dear. I know you’ve not been able to do the things you would usually do because of me. But, Cassie, I was so glad to get out of that hospital and I dreaded the thought of
going to a nursing home. Those places put the fear of God in me,’ Nora confided. ‘I hope to God I never have to have any truck with them again. All those tubes and machines and things.
I was afraid of my life.’ She seemed to get very agitated at the memory. Taking her daughter’s hand she stared at Cassie. ‘Promise me, Cassie, if anything ever happens to me
you’ll never put me in one of those nursing-home places. I want to die in my own bed.’

‘You’re not going to die, for heaven’s sake, Mam,’ Cassie laughed.

‘Please, Cassie, promise me,’ Nora urged her daughter.

‘Of course, I promise, Mam. Now would you not be worrying about things like that!’ Cassie said gently.

‘It’s something we all have to face some time, pet,’ Nora sighed.

‘I know, Mam, but don’t be worrying about it. You’re not going to end up anywhere you don’t want to be,’ Cassie reassured her.

Nora smiled at Cassie. ‘You’re the best daughter a mother could have, and these past two months you’ve done more than anybody has a right to expect.’

Cassie looked at the white-haired woman at her side. The heart attack had taken its toll and she looked her age, although she seemed far better than she had done two months before. Cassie
realized with a sharp sense of shock that her mother was getting old. It was a dismal thought and she banished it quickly from her mind. Leaning over, she held Nora close. ‘Mam, it was a
pleasure to have you here and you’re very welcome to anything I did for you because I love you very much.’