A Mother’s Spirit. Anne Bennett

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      Gloria said nothing. She knew that the only way sleep would help her was if she were to wake up afterwards and find the whole thing had been some horrible nightmare.

      ‘I must find out what is happening,’ Joe said. ‘I will send Tilly to sit with you.’

      Downstairs he found Planchard waiting for him with the evening paper in his hand. ‘The master was holding this when he came in,’ he said, handing it to Joe. ‘Look at the Stop Press, sir.’

      There in the hall, Joe learned what had caused his father-in-law to take his own life. He read of the Wall Street Crash, which had begun on a day the paper called Black Tuesday. Many people faced ruination because of it, and some men, seeing this, found their hearts couldn’t take it and they had died there on the Exchange floor.

      ‘If it is as bad as that, maybe in the end Brian’s heart might have given out too,’ Joe said. ‘That would have been tragedy enough, but doing it this way – that’s so … well almost unbelievable. He is the very last man that I could imagine doing such a thing.’

      The doctor, who had known the Brannigan family for years, was terribly shocked and upset by the news that Brian had felt driven to kill himself after the news he had heard about his shares. He went into the study first, looked down on the body of the fine man he had known Brian to be, and felt the pity of it all wash over him.

      Brian had no need of his services now and he followed Joe up the stairs to see how the man’s wife and daughter were coping.

      ‘I am worried about the mental state of both your wife and your mother-in-law,’ he told Joe, after examining them both. ‘I have given them each a strong sedative for now. At least they will sleep tonight and I will be back in the morning.’

      ‘The police are on their way,’ Joe said.

      ‘Well, I would say neither woman could help them in what is so obviously a terrible and tragic accident,’ the doctor said. ‘It could be very detrimental for them to be disturbed tonight.’

      ‘I’ll see they are not,’ Joe said firmly. ‘And I will make that clear to the police.’

      In the end, he didn’t have to because the police saw straight away that Brian’s death was a suicide and they praised Joe for having the foresight to leave everything as it was until they arrived. Once the police left, Planchard phoned the undertakers to take the body away.

      ‘Would you like me to phone Bert too, sir?’ he asked. ‘I don’t think news like this can wait until the morning.’

      ‘No, you’re right,’ Joe said, ‘and he was worried enough when I told him that Brian had gone out this morning without a word to anyone. He was all for me leaving a little earlier so that I could look for him before true darkness really descended.’

      Over the next few days, there was so much to do that Joe didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Everyone now knew what had happened, and not just in the Brannigan household either, for it was widely reported in the newspapers. An estimated thirty billion dollars had been lost in the Crash, and Joe felt as helpless as though he were on the edge of a precipice and about to fall into the dark void beyond.

      Everything Joe had to do seemed to take so long and there were only so many hours in the day. He had thought arranging the funeral would at least be straightforward. However, when he went up to the presbytery to make arrangements with the priest, he told Joe that Brian should not be buried in consecrated ground because he had taken his own life.

      Joe glared at him for a moment before saying, ‘And exactly who would that punish?’

      ‘It’s the law of the Christian Church, Joe.’

      ‘You can’t put the word Christian to a law like that, which serves only to shame and stigmatise the people left behind,’ Joe snapped. ‘They are already coping with the fact that their loved one is dead, and by his own hand. Have you the least idea what that feels like?’

      ‘But, Joe—’

      ‘There isn’t a but here, Father,’ Joe said. ‘Brian has donated enough money to this church over the years and, added to that, his plot where his father is buried, and where Norah will lie eventually, is bought and paid for.’

      ‘Money and even ownership of a plot doesn’t come into this, Joe. It’s a question of doing what is right.’

      ‘You will be doing something badly wrong if you refuse to bury Brian’s body in the churchyard,’ Joe said. ‘The doctor said the balance of Norah’s mind is precarious.’

      The priest shook his head. ‘Obviously I feel immensely sorry for Norah, for all of you.’

      ‘Oh, good,’ Joe said sarcastically. ‘That will make all the difference. Look, Father, when Brian came home from the Exchange he was in a bad way. Planchard said that he thought Brian wasn’t totally sane at that point, which was just a couple of minutes before he turned the gun on himself. If he wasn’t in his right mind surely he can’t be blamed for his actions?’

      ‘Not if he wasn’t sane.’

      ‘Well, you know the manner of man he was,’ Joe said. ‘Could you see him ever even thinking about killing himself?’

      ‘No, Joe, I couldn’t.’

      ‘Well then, Father?’

      ‘All right, Joe, you argue well,’ the priest said at last. ‘Brian can have his Christian burial.’

      Joe had been expecting the call from the solicitor, though he thought they might get the funeral over first, but it was the day before it that he was called to the office urgently. He was deeply shocked by what the solicitor had to tell him for he hadn’t dreamed that things could be so bad. He knew he had to deliver two new hammer blows to his beloved wife and his mother-in-law, and he didn’t know how in God’s name they were going to cope with them.

      He decided to say nothing until the funeral was over, but that meant carrying the news alone, and he found it to be a heavy burden. He felt totally isolated, and bad that he hadn’t even had proper time to mourn the man that he owed so much to and thought so much of, for both Gloria and her mother looked to him for support. He couldn’t ever remember feeling so sad or so lost, not even when his own father died.

       SIX

      The church was packed out for the funeral, for Brian had been a popular man, but Joe was worried about his mother-in-law, who looked gaunt and frail. He knew, though, however gruelling she found the occasion, she would carry it through to the bitter end for she was that type of person. And so would Gloria, for she had her mother’s backbone. He had such admiration for both of them as he helped them into the funeral car that led the cavalcade of motor vehicles back to the house for refreshments.

      He knew the two women might collapse when the mourners left. When the last one went home and Norah announced she was going to bed, Joe wasn’t surprised.

      ‘Aren’t you ready for bed yourself, my dear?’ he asked Gloria.

      ‘Not yet,’ Gloria said. ‘I СКАЧАТЬ