Irish Gothic by Ronald Kelly

Author:Ronald Kelly [Kelly, Ronald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: horror, short stories
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2021-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

A Fine Wake for Nana Ferree

Meriel “Nana” Ferree died on a soft and balmy day in the midst of April. She had lived seventy-three long years and folks claimed that her heart was the biggest and best part about her. But age had taken a toll and her heart had become weak and contrary, and finally, without warning, had given up the ghost.

At the news, men brushed their derby hats and laid out Sunday morning suits, and women ironed and prepared dresses of black taffeta for mourning. The children and youth of the village of Derrybrien were the hardest hit by the news. For many years, Nana had been a matronly nanny of sorts and had kept most of the town’s children while their parents worked jobs in and around County Galway. Many had known Nana as a second mother from birth to young adulthood.

As per her request, she was given a humble and modest wake in the little, thatched cottage that she had called her home for most of her life. Her casket, made of birchwood, had been stained and polished to a golden finish, but there were no fancy linings or ornate brass handles to declare her as anyone of high standing. That had also been something that she had insisted on—that she go out from Ireland and God’s earth with as little as possible, the same way she had come in the day she was born.

On the morning of her passing, the elder women of Derrybrien had bathed and prepared her body, then dressed it in a gown of white linen. She had wanted no white or black ribbons decorating her according to custom, but ribbons of emerald green instead, for she loved her country, with its beds of clover and lush pastureland. They adorned her snow-white hair with dog violet, primrose, and buttercup from her flower garden, then entwined her favorite rosery between her fingers and crossed her thin hands one upon another, since she was of Roman Catholic belief. Candles were fashioned and lit at both the head and foot of the poor dear and, since her relations were no longer among the living, her best friend, Sarah McCarthy, sat and watched over her during the three-day visitation between her demise and burial.

After the preparation, the time of wailing and crying commenced, for in Irish legend, that was what dissuaded evil spirits from gathering and taking the soul, instead of allowing it to travel onward on its own. The day afterward was the blend of joviality and grieving. The townsfolk gathered to eat and drink, to trade stories and sing songs. It was during that time that the children of Derrybrien were allowed to pay their respects to their beloved Nana, as well as the young adults who had been in her keep for most of their lives.

Grace Fitzgerald and her beau, Connor Maguire, waited their turn and, after a half-hour’s wait, approached the still, small form in the birchwood coffin.

Both had been kept by Nana Ferree as children, grown up together, and had eventually pledged their love for one another.

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