Chapter Eleven:
'The future is brighter'
Over the next two years, Liam was able to live a pretty full life, although he tired more easily these days and he was liable to contract bugs and bouts of flu far easier than he would have done in the past."
Trish felt so guilty when Liam initially told her about his fatal condition, but paradoxically it had a positive effect as it undoubtedly lifted her out of her period of depression far sooner than she would have otherwise emerged from it.
Throughout this period, Farley remained a good loyal friend to the family and he and Trish would frequently take the children out for a day at weekend while Liam and Ned, who was also a frequent visitor to the family cottage, stayed at home doing some odd jobs.
Only once before he died did Liam speak openly to Ned about the prospect of him no longer being around to look after Trish and the children. It was during a Sunday afternoon while Trish and Farley had taken the four children to the beach at Tramore. Ned had brewed a pot a tea for the two of them when Liam said, "Now hear me out, Ned, because I know that you won't welcome such talk, but there are things that need to be said and I need to say them now while I'm still around to say them."
Trish felt so guilty when Liam initially told her about his fatal condition, but paradoxically it had a positive effect as it undoubtedly lifted her out of her period of depression far sooner than she would have otherwise emerged from it.
Throughout this period, Farley remained a good loyal friend to the family and he and Trish would frequently take the children out for a day at weekend while Liam and Ned, who was also a frequent visitor to the family cottage, stayed at home doing some odd jobs.
Only once before he died did Liam speak openly to Ned about the prospect of him no longer being around to look after Trish and the children. It was during a Sunday afternoon while Trish and Farley had taken the four children to the beach at Tramore. Ned had brewed a pot a tea for the two of them when Liam said, "Now hear me out, Ned, because I know that you won't welcome such talk, but there are things that need to be said and I need to say them now while I'm still around to say them."
Ned sat down with his pot of tea whilst Liam spoke in deadly earnestness. "I guess I won't have too many months left to say things to you that I need to say Ned, so please hear me out, old friend. There will come a time in the future no doubt when Nature will take its usual course and reinvigorate the heart and passions of my dear wife Trish once more. When that happens, I want you to know that I wholeheartedly approve and it would earn my eternal gratitude if you tell your son, Farley and my Trish of this conversation we now have. Will you do that for me dear friend?"
"Of course I will, Liam. Of course I will. I'm so glad that you feel that way as it's as obvious as the twisted tongue of a confirmed liar that the friendship my son holds for your Trish has within it a love that dare not express itself openly. I don't know if the two of them will ever take their present friendship farther, but if they do, I will gladly tell them of your wishes upon the matter," Ned replied.
"Of course I will, Liam. Of course I will. I'm so glad that you feel that way as it's as obvious as the twisted tongue of a confirmed liar that the friendship my son holds for your Trish has within it a love that dare not express itself openly. I don't know if the two of them will ever take their present friendship farther, but if they do, I will gladly tell them of your wishes upon the matter," Ned replied.
Three months after this talk, Liam died in his sleep. His children naturally were very upset at his passing, but having Ned, Uncle Farley and their mother around to console them, eased their pain considerably. There were a good many times when Trish would take herself off to a spot that she and Liam did frequently visit during their courtship days. She would think of times past and also of times to come and she would wonder what sense Liam would have made of it all. It helped her considerably when Ned passed on to her and Farley, Liam's blessing from the grave. It also pleased Ned that his son had decided to be known by the name of Cannon.
Trish would resume her blacksmith role one year after the death of Liam and eighteen months before her marriage to Farley. Their wedding was way out of the ordinary run-of-the-mill weddings that Kilbunny and Portlaw are accustomed to, insomuch as both Farley and his father Ned were married in the same church on the very same day by the same priest! As the priest performed the double wedding ceremony, outside stood the transport to take each bride and groom back to their respective homes alongside the additional two pony and trap carriages that conveyed all four children.
The two pony and traps that pulled Farley and Trish and Ned and Milly were pulled by beautiful Shires and the two conveyances that pulled the children were pulled by Exmoor ponies. Lafferty's Lady had long since retired and been allowed to graze away her retirement years in a nearby field.
Trish would resume her blacksmith role one year after the death of Liam and eighteen months before her marriage to Farley. Their wedding was way out of the ordinary run-of-the-mill weddings that Kilbunny and Portlaw are accustomed to, insomuch as both Farley and his father Ned were married in the same church on the very same day by the same priest! As the priest performed the double wedding ceremony, outside stood the transport to take each bride and groom back to their respective homes alongside the additional two pony and trap carriages that conveyed all four children.
The two pony and traps that pulled Farley and Trish and Ned and Milly were pulled by beautiful Shires and the two conveyances that pulled the children were pulled by Exmoor ponies. Lafferty's Lady had long since retired and been allowed to graze away her retirement years in a nearby field.
Unlike his friend and partner, Ned, it would have been lovely had Liam and his natural blood father magically met up before he died, but such wasn't destined to be. However, four years after Liam had been buried, a strange man from America placed a bunch of flowers upon his grave plot. There was no note attached to the flowers; simply a religious patch, the kind that Liam's mother, Lucy, had pressed into his hand at the moment of his birth and her death in the snow. When Trish and Farley later examined the religious patch closely and compared it with the one that Liam's dying mother had pressed into her son's hand, the religious icon and image of both patches were identical.
"Could............could that possibly have been..... Liam's.............?" Trish started to say.
Trish had almost framed the question that came into her mind, but it was both Trish and Farley that voiced it simultaneously.
"Father?" both Trish and Farley uttered together in completion of the full sentence.
This was something that they'd never know for certain, but it pleased them to think that it might well have been.
Today, the name of Lafferty in Kilbunny and Portlaw carries with it all manner of memories, both good and bad. While very few people there will remember Lilly, Lucy or Hetti from Kilbunny, the name of Cannon is known throughout the length and breadth of Ireland for its horse breeding status; particularly in the breeds of Shires and Exmoors. By the time that the twins had reached twenty one years of age, both were renown in County Tipperary as the only female twin Smithies in the entire western world!
The End.
Text Copyright William Forde : 13th January, 2014.
"Could............could that possibly have been..... Liam's.............?" Trish started to say.
Trish had almost framed the question that came into her mind, but it was both Trish and Farley that voiced it simultaneously.
"Father?" both Trish and Farley uttered together in completion of the full sentence.
This was something that they'd never know for certain, but it pleased them to think that it might well have been.
Today, the name of Lafferty in Kilbunny and Portlaw carries with it all manner of memories, both good and bad. While very few people there will remember Lilly, Lucy or Hetti from Kilbunny, the name of Cannon is known throughout the length and breadth of Ireland for its horse breeding status; particularly in the breeds of Shires and Exmoors. By the time that the twins had reached twenty one years of age, both were renown in County Tipperary as the only female twin Smithies in the entire western world!
The End.
Text Copyright William Forde : 13th January, 2014.
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