Children's Children by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788639095
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2020-02-28T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

That evening, Leona called to see her grandmother.

‘What a nice surprise!’ Sarah said when she opened the door.

Leona followed her into the kitchen. ‘You might not think so when you hear why I’ve come.’

Sarah had known there must be a reason. Leona had never dropped in on her before. And her composure seemed a little forced. ‘You’ve had a row with Frank? I hope not,’ she inquired.

Leona smiled. ‘Who can row with Frank?’

Sarah returned the smile. Theirs was a good marriage, she thought gratefully. The kind that would never go wrong.

‘I want your advice about something,’ Leona said.

‘That’s what grandmothers are for.’ Mothers, too, Sarah reflected. But Leona’s mother had enough problems of her own.

Sarah managed to hide her horror when she learned from Leona what Rebecca’s latest problem was. And things which had been previously insignificant assumed meaning now. The peppermints. Rebecca regularly requesting a drop of brandy to ease indigestion. And her habit of leaving early, to go home and watch television in bed. With a bottle for company, Sarah thought sorrowfully.

‘I spoke to Uncle Lou Benjamin, on the phone,’ Leona said. ‘He told me what Daddy did. That you can’t help an alcoholic who doesn’t want to be helped. And on a personal level, my father seems to have resigned himself to it,’ Leona added with distress. ‘That’s why I came to see you.’

‘Your father has had a terrible life,’ Sarah sighed, casting her mind back to the harrowing months after Leona’s birth, when Rebecca had refused to so much as look at her baby. ‘You don’t know the half of it, Leona.’ And thank God she didn’t.

‘I know enough to be aware that Mummy’s life hasn’t been all roses, either.’

‘That is also true.’

‘But Daddy has his work. My mother has nothing to occupy her mind except herself.’ Leona felt awkward, talking about her parents to her grandmother. But Sarah Sandberg was a wise woman and she made herself continue. ‘Mummy is the kind of woman to whom marriage is their be-all and end-all.’

‘You mean marriage and motherhood,’ Sarah corrected her. ‘Your mother has a granddaughter, too.’

‘But Carla and I can’t help her personal loneliness, can we, Bobbie? And there’s no doubt in my mind that that is what drove her to drink.’

Sarah stopped poking the fire. ‘If there were no other remedy for what you are talking about, every woman who is widowed would take to the bottle for comfort. Including me. But I’m part of my children’s lives. If you want to give your mother a reason to stop drinking, you must make her part of yours, Leona.’

Sarah spooned some tea into her ever-ready teapot and filled it with water from the kettle that lived on her hob.

Her grandmother’s homily had stung Leona. Her father, too, had implied that she neglected her mother. ‘Mummy could see Carla and me every afternoon, if she wanted to. But she’s never there when Bridie brings Carla from school,’ she told Sarah defensively.

Sarah stirred the tea carefully. ‘For that there can only be one reason, Leona.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.