September 1854
MARY RAN HER FINGERS OVER THE NEW DRAPES, CUSHIONS AND counterpanes that she and Nora had made for the house on Mulberry Street. She and her daughters had scrubbed every last inch of the place. John, Tim and Jude had done much of the carpentry and repair work themselves. Pat too had helped with the rebuilding work and she was grateful not only for this but for everything he had done for them since they had first arrived in New York.
‘Mam, look at our proper bedroom!’ eleven-year-old Annie laughed as she jumped on the bed that she and Nora would share, while Tim and Jude were happy to no longer have to share with the girls. Instead, they would have the narrow room that overlooked the street.
The large kitchen was warm, with a fine new stove, and there was a smaller room that looked out on the yard that would serve as her sewing room. The top floor, with its two attic rooms, they would rent out.
She had never imagined that in time they would have a home of their own here in the city.
‘I know that it’s not in the best of neighbourhoods and still needs some repairs, but at least it is ours,’ she said proudly.
‘No one will ever take the roof from over the head of a Sullivan again,’ pledged John firmly. ‘Not while there is still life in us.’
‘This place reminds me of a meitheal back home,’ suggested Pat as he hammered some nails into the last step of the wooden staircase. ‘Where everyone helps out, whatever way they can.’
Mary smiled, remembering when neighbours and friends gathered together to help bring in the harvest, mend a thatch roof, or repair a cottage damaged by gales or storms. Or even to give a hand to a young couple to build a simple cabin of their own. A meitheal always meant food and drink and hospitality.
Pat was right – so many had helped to turn this place into a home. She and John happily drew up a guest list for a housewarming, surprised by how many new friends they had made since they had first arrived in New York.
Catherine Ryan and her husband, James, insisted on bringing a large maple-glazed ham for the party, while Mena had made her a fine tablecloth and napkins. Lily Connolly and her new husband, Michael, brought along a porter cake, John’s boss, Jerome Daly, arrived with a large bottle of poitín, and Sarah brought along a friend who worked with her.
‘They never get proper home cooking, Auntie Mary,’ confided Jude, who had invited two of the other apprentices who worked with him at the printer’s.
Pat, much to their surprise, arrived, eyes shining, with a pretty, dark-haired young woman in tow.
‘This is Ellen Cleary,’ he said, introducing her. ‘She works in the haberdashery shop near Broad Street.’
‘I sell buttons and bows, mostly,’ she said with a laugh.
‘Welcome,’ Mary said, smiling, delighted to meet the kind, blue-eyed girl who she suspected had stolen Pat’s heart finally.
‘I bought you this.’ Pat laughed as he unwrapped a large slab of cooked corned beef in the kitchen. ‘Try as I could, I couldn’t find a hare to catch!’
‘Mary and I thank you all for coming this evening and for your help in making this old house into a home,’ John said to everyone, as all the guests cheered and clapped.
Smiling, they looked around them proudly at their family and friends, and everything this new life and hard work had brought them.
Later, with the house quiet and their friends gone, Mary and John sat out on the narrow back step together. The night was still warm and, as Mary gazed up at the starry sky and moon glowing over the city, she pondered the past. The calamity and sadness they had endured; the terrible hunger and crossing the wild Atlantic Ocean, where they had lost their beloved boy Con. She would never forget the ravaged streets of Skibbereen and all those dear to them who had been taken, and how she and John had been forced to leave their home place for ever.
Life had been so cruel, but somehow they had survived. Fate had surely brought them and their family here to this new life in New York.
Mary laid her face against John’s. She still loved her husband as much as the day he had asked her to marry him. She had no idea where time would take them, but as long as they were together that was all that mattered to her.
They spoke little of the past. Instead, they looked to all that life here in this new land, America, would bring them and their children. Their heads and hearts were full of dreams and plans for the future, and the years together ahead of them …