Breda’s apprehension returned on Saturday, the day Mary
and I were in Dublin. She wrote that she was feeling quite ill
and had ‘a foreboding feeling that something was about to
happen …’
The next day Breda went to South Harrow to visit my
beloved aunt Nell. She felt depressed and talked to Nell about
Cathal, how poor his school report had been, how she worried
that he was ‘so wild’ and that his dad ‘might come down hard
on him’. Nell urged her to ring home, but Breda felt unable
to do so, feeling that there was ‘something awful after
happening’. She felt very close to her uncle Tom, Mary’s
brother, and ‘for some strange reason’ she wanted to hear his
voice, and so went to his house. Breda noted that ‘our
conversation was mostly about Cathal. Cathal & I were very
close & very alike in ways that only we knew …’
extract from book ‘when a child dies. footsteps of a grieving family. available from Veritas, Amazon, bookshops.
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