The Girls on Rose Hill by Bernadette Walsh Read Free Book Online Page B

from Kitty addressed to Eileen during that time, letters extolling the beauty of her daughter Rose and the good nature of her handsome husband. She described for Eileen every stick of furniture in her new basement apartment in Park Slope, every dress she knitted for Rose, but apparently received nothing in return. Kitty determinedly continued to write, as if responding to her mother's letters as before. Then the letters from Kitty stopped, and a month after my grandfather's death, Eileen wrote:
    " My dear darling Kitty, My heart is broken writing this letter to you, also your father and your brothers and sisters. I nearly dropped dead myself when I read that your poor loving husband was dead. What a shock it was to us and what it must be to you. May God and His Blessed Mother comfort you and your child. May God rest his poor soul.
    Oh Kitty dear, I beg you not to worry yourself to death. You have something to live for, your child. She will need you and she will cheer you. I am not able to write, my head and my heart is paining me so. Kitty, if you want to come home there is a place here for you and your child. Our hearts are open to receive you and comfort you for as long as we live. If you stay in that sad land, I am sure your good sisters will help you and your child. The past is over, dear child, and we must all remember that we are all the one.
    Kitty dear, I can write no more. My eyes are blind with tears. Write to me soon. I will be worrying until I hear from you."
    My own eyes were blind with tears when I finished that letter, but I couldn't help myself, I continued on and read about how Kitty had to leave her beloved basement apartment to take a nursing job in Manhattan, leaving her small child with her sister. But in time, Kitty did cheer up, perhaps too much to suit her mother for in her letters she scolded Kitty for not sending Margaret enough support money, not visiting Rose often enough and, according to Mrs. Sheehan and her omnipotent relations, consorting with a "bad element."
    She sent Kitty a blistering letter when she learned that she intended to take Rose from Margaret. "Surely, my bold daughter, you are speaking out of temper and not from sense. If Rose calls your sister mother, it's because she doesn't see enough of you. Your good sister is not to blame. Where would you be without her generous heart? Look where your jealousy and spite got you last time. Apologize to your sister and her fine husband, visit your daughter every week, and stop this nonsense about marrying that quare fellow that Margaret says you brought to the house last week. I will pray that Our Blessed Mother guides you and gives you strength."
    The next letter was more conciliatory and almost pleading. "Margaret tells me that you are to be wed next month. I pray that he is a fine man and that he will take care of you and Rosie. But how do you know this man? Who is his family and why does he live so far from Brooklyn and your sisters? I pray to our Lord in Heaven that you find happiness in this marriage, if you do marry him. But please know that your child is happy and loved in Margaret's home. The thought of losing her is breaking your sister's heart. Maybe it would be best not to move the child. I pray to God that all turns out well."
    Well, Kitty did marry her quare fellow and take back her child. For about a year, their correspondence was frequent. Kitty described her new home by the sea and the customers in the village hardware shop that her husband's family owned while Eileen described the details of her husband's wake and funeral and her son Danny's subsequent marriage to a Sheehan. If mother and daughter were not as close as they once were, they were closer than they had been since Kitty's ill fated marriage to Tim Murphy. But then Eileen sent this letter: "My Dear Kitty, I am holding Margaret's letter in my hand and I can't believe it. She says that when she saw you last, she was shocked by your condition.. She said that your