Birchfields
May 1945
GARNET WATCHED FROM THE TERRACE as the last car disappeared around the curve of the driveway. She had sent them all away to the celebration taking place in the town hall and everywhere in the village. The long-prayed-for peace had finally come with the announcement of Germany’s surrender. Church bells had rung, and there had been shouts, cheers, hugs and tears, dancing and singing. All day long “There’ll Always Be an England” and “Hail Britannia” were being sung in schoolrooms and pubs and being played over the radio. Occasionally, even such songs as “Yankee Doodle” and “Over There” were also heard. And for good reason, Garnet thought. After all, the Americans had helped bring about this glorious day. The brilliant strategist General Eisenhower, working with Britain’s flamboyant General “Monty” Montgomery, hero of the North African campaign against Rommel, had accomplished the successful invasion of Normandy. Of course, it was the retaliatory bombing of Germany that had brought about the German surrender. Garnet shuddered. War!
Thank God it was over. It had been a long five years, and at times the future had looked very bleak indeed. Providentially, this part of England had been spared much of the devastation that other places, less remote and more important, had suffered. Still, everyone was exhausted. For all the excited elation she had felt earlier when the news of victory was officially announced over the BBC, Garnet felt a little weak and shaky now. She hadn’t realized what a toll these past years had taken. “Feeling my age, I guess,” she murmured out loud, something she might not have admitted if anyone else had been around to hear. However, she was alone. Bryanne had been reluctant to leave her, but Garnet had insisted. Steven had driven over from the hospital to share the news, and Garnet had urged them to go with the others to the village celebration. They had both earned it. Steven had worked tirelessly as a medical officer, and Bryanne had not only managed the hospitality weekends at Birchfields but also headed the local Red Cross. They had a right to be part of the joyful celebration.
Today had been wonderful, but now Garnet was feeling tired. She would go to her bedroom and relax. Before going inside, she paused to look over her garden. It needed work. At the beginning of the war, they had turned some of the flower beds into planting areas for vegetables. Now she could plan to bring it back to its former magnificence. Men would be returning; she could get gardeners again. She would have to decide which bulbs she wanted. Tulips perhaps, all colors, if poor Holland’s fields had not been completely ruined during the Nazi occupation. Garnet sighed, leaned heavily on her cane. So much to do. She went inside. The house was strangely quiet, because Garnet had let her small household staff go off as well.
Upstairs Garnet stretched out on her chaise lounge. Things had been so hectic, she hadn’t even taken time to read the newspaper. She put on her reading specs, unfolded the paper, and skimmed the bold headlines on the front page, then turned to Grace Comfort’s column.
Several weeks before, when Lenora and Victor Ridgeway were visiting Birchfields, Victor had told Garnet that he had already written the column they would use when victory finally was declared. “By writing it, I was standing on my conviction that in the end good would overcome evil, right would prevail, that the human race is still capable of grand and noble deeds.”
Privately, Garnet had always felt that Victor, writing as Grace Comfort, was a bit over the edge optimistically, sentimentally. Still, she was curious to read what he had written before VE Day.
Ten minutes later she laid the paper aside. For once Garnet had no criticism of the column. The last lines were particularly satisfactory. He had quoted the American president Abraham Lincoln, whom Garnet, as well as many other Southerners, had come belatedly to admire: “I am writing this in faith and with the strong hope that it will be true for us who have believed and fought so bravely for it. Peace will come soon and come to stay and so come as to be worth keeping in all future time.”
Garnet was glad she had lived to see this day. Her heart echoed the expressed hope for a lasting peace so that Luc and Alair’s little son would never know the horrors of war. She had lived through four wars. What a lot of memories she had…. She had been blessed with an incredibly long life … had known grief, hardship, sorrow, joys … mostly blessings. Yes, it had been a long, rich life…. She had known so much love. She thought of her parents, of Bryce Montrose, who had loved her, of Malcolm, whom she had loved and lost. He had broken her heart twice, once when he married the beautiful Rose Meredith, a second time when he had brought Blythe home from California…. Maybe it was all for the best. Who knows? If that had not happened, she might never have met Jeremy or had Faith…. God had generously blessed her. She had no regrets. Well, perhaps a few. She wished she had been kinder, more understanding, less stubborn … but God knows and forgives….
Garnet leaned her head back against the satin pillows, closed her eyes. Dusk was gathering in the garden, and in the pale early evening sky the shadow outline of the moon could be seen over the tops of the trees. No need to fear the moonlight tonight, thank God. As the room darkened, Garnet thought vaguely that she should get up, turn on some lamps, but this was so pleasant, so peaceful, she would just lie here a little while longer and rest …
Garnet Cameron Devlin
The simple headstone was placed next to Jeremy’s in the small cemetery of the village church where she had worshiped since coming to live in England.
When the will was read, Birchfields had been left to Bryanne. Garnet had expressed the suggestion that Steven might want to use it as a convalescent home for veterans. She left them free to decide its best purpose; her only wish was that they rename it for her beloved daughter Faith Devlin Montrose.
The name and the allocation seemed very appropriate to Bryanne and Steven, and they were happy to carry out her grandmother’s request.