THE STONE HOUSE was strangely quiet without her father. Kate hadn’t realized how much noise he’d always made, a big man with heavy footsteps on the stairs in the hall, listening to the radio, watching the news constantly and the racing results, making coffee for himself and banging about in the kitchen, or on the phone, raising his voice because he was slightly deaf. His huge presence suddenly gone!
Her mother had slept solidly for sixteen hours without budging, Danny, afraid, asking if his granny was about to die too.
‘She’s just very tired and sad, pet,’ Moya reassured him, hugging her little boy close.
They were all concerned for her. Kate had always imagined her parents growing old and crabby together, her father retired, bossing her mother like he always did, as they went away on weekend trips and holidays. They had never considered their mother alone and vulnerable, nervous for the first time ever in her life of being on her own.
‘Mum, would you like to come and stay with us in Richmond for a while?’ offered Moya.
‘Or my apartment in Dublin?’ asked Kate.
‘No, I’d prefer to stay here,’ admitted Maeve, honestly. ‘This is my home and I don’t want to leave it.’
In the house she felt safe, surrounded by familiar things and memories of years of married life, Frank’s presence everywhere. She couldn’t leave the house!
They all sat in silence when Pat Hayes, the local solicitor, called to the house a few days later with a copy of the will. Maeve had been left almost everything.
‘You already own the family home, Maeve, but Frank was keen for you to realize some of his property investments,’ he explained carefully as he put on his reading glasses. ‘There is a three-storey office building in the centre of Waterford on the quays, a single-storey office building in Rossmore, five apartments in the Old Mill development, four holiday homes on Harbour Road, two shops on Harbour Road, three cottages in the Cove, and an eight-bedroomed converted house on Tramore Strand being in use as a bed and breakfast. Four racehorses and a portfolio of shares and a number of small farmland plots.’
‘Oh my God,’ sighed their mother.
‘To Moya, Kate and Romy, each of my daughters, I leave a half-acre of land in Woodstown overlooking the sea for their own use or the use of their families. My wedding ring with the sapphire stone I leave to my eldest grandson Gavin Redmond, my gold watch to my grandson Daniel Redmond and my gold chain to my granddaughter Fiona Redmond.’
Moya’s eyes welled with tears. Her father had adored his grandchildren. Kate and herself held hands as Pat Hayes finished off.
‘Thank you, Pat,’ said Maeve when he’d finished. ‘We appreciate it.’
‘There is extensive property but as far as I’m aware there may be some borrowings against them,’ he warned.
‘Some borrowings!’ pressed Patrick. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Bank loans, heavy mortgages. Frank had mentioned to me recently that he was hoping to offload some of them and pay off the loans.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Aye, I spoke to him after he came home from Dublin last week.’
‘Perhaps we should talk to his bank manager, then.’
Two days later found them sitting in Rossmore’s Bank of Ireland branch close to Frank Dillon’s offices as Niall Brady explained the situation to them.
‘On paper it all looks very rosy and good, but in reality it’s not as healthy as we’d ideally like. Everything is heavily borrowed, with interest payments just being met but no decrease in the actual capital sum from month to month.’
Patrick groaned. Kate stared at the family photos on the bank manager’s desk, trying to control herself.
Patrick was like a terrier dog with a bone and although their father was only dead and buried a few days he insisted on putting all the information together. Following a phone call to Rory McWilliams, they drove up to Dublin to meet him.
Everything was itemized and listed. The holiday cottages were part of a designated tax scheme and for the present could not be sold without inviting huge penalties. The B&B in Tramore was in need of extensive refurbishment before the start of the summer season and one of the tenants of the shops was in arrears on his rent and had given notice he intended retiring.
It was all a huge mess and Kate could feel tension gnaw at her jaw and shoulders as she listened. There was only one good thing: the council investigation into her father’s affairs was over, as without his evidence it could go no further. The Revenue Commissioners were less forgiving and even with Rory and Patrick’s input, the final sum arrived at seemed an absolute fortune.
Most of what their mother had been left would have to be sold to cover the amount.
‘I just want to clear it off, pay them all what they are due,’ insisted Maeve Dillon angrily. ‘Frank did his best during his lifetime to provide for us all. I couldn’t ask for more.’
‘We could sell the land Daddy left us too,’ suggested Kate.
‘Your father wanted you to have it,’ Maeve reminded her.
‘But Mammy, if you need it more, that’s what we’ll do. I’m sure Moya would agree.’
‘There is no question of any of you selling the piece of property your father gave you!’ she exclaimed angrily. ‘The money will be found to pay off his debts.’
A discreet valuation of the plots showed that without planning permission the land would only fetch a fraction of what it was worth. Reluctantly, Maeve Dillon gave instructions to one of the large auctioneers in Dublin to realize as much value from her husband’s properties as possible. Everything except for the holiday cottages and his old office in Rossmore would have to be sold, not a penny of it benefiting his widow. Her father had not believed in pensions, trusting his investments in land and bricks and mortar to be a sounder proposition.
‘How will you manage, Mammy?’ Kate asked.
‘Don’t worry, pet, I’ll be fine.’
‘Would you think of moving?’ she suggested gently. ‘Maybe the house will be too big for you with all of us gone and the gardens to manage.’
‘I love this house,’ she replied, affronted. ‘My grandfather built it and Vonnie, Eamonn and I were born and grew up in this house, your father and I raised all of you here. How could I possibly ever leave it!’
‘I just meant maybe somewhere smaller, a bungalow or an apartment might be easier.’
‘And where would Moya and the children stay when they come home for the summer, or Eamonn have a bit of space for himself when he gets a break from his parish?’
‘Mum, I know what you’re saying.’
‘And what about Romy? Do you think I’m going to have your sister come back to Ireland and find her family home sold? No. I’ll manage. There’s your father’s shares and the rents from the cottages and the office. Don’t you worry, Kate pet, I’ll get by.’
Kate sighed to herself. She loved the Stone House just as much as her mother but she could see the struggle it might become to maintain it.