Angels in My Hair by Lorna Byrne Read Free Book Online Page A

houses
themselves – Granny told me later that these were coach
houses, where the horses and carriages had been kept, long
ago.
    Da stopped the car and we all tumbled out. I looked in
wonder at the house. We went in and I was introduced to
Granny and my grandfather. My grandfather had a wooden
leg; I was always told that he had lost it as a young man while
fighting for Irish freedom. My grandparents had very little
money, but Granddad had a wonderful old-fashioned car which
was designed so that he could get around with his wooden leg.
That first evening he showed me a baby swallow that had fallen
from its nest; he was feeding it with a dropper and keeping it
in a shoebox. He also had found birds' eggs and was trying to
keep them warm in the hope that they would hatch. Granddad
looked very feeble and he stooped, and that first evening I also
noticed that the light surrounding him was much weaker than
that around other people: it was very dim, almost invisible, but
at the time I didn't think too much about it.
    My grandmother was a small, good-looking elegant woman
with short grey hair. She worked very hard, making sure that
the hostel was clean. She was also a great cook and spent hours
in their kitchen baking brown bread, apple tarts and all kinds
of delicious things. In fact, Granny and Granddad spent most of
their time in their kitchen, which always smelled of fresh
baking, and I loved to sit there at the table with them enjoying
a cup of tea and a slice of hot brown bread.
    The big house was wonderful. Beyond the kitchen was a
long, long corridor with lots of flower pots. In summer, when
I was there, this corridor was always full of flowers of all
colours. At the end was a glass room, and there was nothing
much in it except more of Granny's flowers, but it was a place
I loved. I used to spend a lot of time there, talking to the angels.
    The garden was fantastic, too. There were the yards with the
coach houses where the swallows nested, and beyond the
yards was a little gate – which I always climbed over instead of
opening. This gate led into a garden with big trees and lovely
flowers which always smelled wonderful. There were rabbits
and birds there, and sometimes, if I sat under one of the big
trees with sloping branches, I could look into a blackbird's nest
and see her chicks. Beyond the garden were the fields and open
countryside. I loved that garden, and I felt very safe there.
    From the first day in Mountshannon I used to go for long
walks on my own; I could slip out and nobody seemed to
notice, or care, where I had gone. I was very good at not being
noticed. Most of the time, with adults, it was as if I didn't exist.
Sometimes I felt they might be happier if I didn't really exist;
I've never been quite sure whether this was because I could feel
what they were thinking, or because of the things I had heard
said about me over the years. Once, as a young child, I heard
my neighbour telling my mother I was lucky I hadn't been
locked up and the key thrown away. When she said this my
mother didn't reply or defend me.
    I would walk for miles – across bogs, through woods, across
hayfields, along the banks of the River Shannon – but I never
felt alone. I was always talking to the angels who were with me
and watching and listening to birds and animals. Occasionally,
the angels would say, 'Go quietly now, very gentle steps.' Then,
up ahead there would be something for me to see. I remember
being enchanted when I was shown a family of little rabbits
playing. They didn't run away so I sat down very close to them
and watched them for hours. I know some days I must have
walked for miles, but I never got lost and I never had an
accident. When I think now of the things I did – crossing
roads, rivers, bogs and fields full of cattle – I have to wonder
how it was that I never came to any harm. But the answer is
clear: God and the angels had me in the palms of their hands.
The angels made me laugh and cry and were the best