The Angels of Lovely Lane (2 page)

‘I know Alfred’s not your real dad, but you do know he loves you, don’t you? He thinks no less of you than of the boys. You have always been special to him.’

Emily let her breath go and sighed in relief. ‘God, Mam, of course I know that. I love him too. Alfred is my da and I don’t think of him as anything else. He’s been the best. You couldn’t have married a nicer person. I tell him every day he’s my Alfred the Great!’

Emily grinned at her mother, who looked like a doll lying in the bed, she was now so thin. She saw the tears welling in her mother’s eyes and knew that what had just passed between them was more than mere words of appreciation for the man who had provided them with a home, security and love. Her mother was looking for reassurance that Alfred would be cared for, should anything happen to her.

‘Don’t worry about Alfred, Mam; he will always be my number one. I will never let him down, I promise.’

Emily had lain awake the previous evening and heard the whispered exchange between her parents. ‘Too far gone. Both lungs now.’ Her mother sobbing, Alfred scrabbling for inadequate words of consolation. Alfred’s muffled voice and her mother never once failing to comfort him.

She had wanted to run into their room, slip into their bed and beg, ‘Please, tell me, what’s going on, because this can’t be true. I don’t understand what’s happening. Everything is changing and I’m so scared.’ She was filled with the fear of not fully knowing what was ahead, and the dread of being aware that worse was probably yet to come.

*

Now, at the other end of the day, it occurred to Emily that her mother had deteriorated after just a few hours. ‘She’s spent most of the day lying on the sofa. She refuses go back to bed now that she’s down,’ said her da. ‘Said she wanted to see you when you got in from work and the kids when they came home from school. You know your mam, she hates to miss anything.’

Emily smelt something that made her mouth water. Turning round, she saw that there was an earthenware pot on the kitchen table, covered by a tea towel, and instantly tears, which were never far from the surface, sprang to her eyes. She knew it was a donation from one of the neighbours; probably Mrs Simmonds, who often popped in and sat with her mother when her da did his rounds. If there was no meat to be seen she would take home with her whatever veg she could find in the Haycock kitchen, returning them hours later in a more edible state than when they left. On other days she would make double the scouse she needed for her own evening meal and then leave half on the table for Emily to heat up for the children when they arrived back from Rita’s house. Rita: yet another good neighbour they depended on. Emily felt as though Rita were her confidante, her best friend. More than that even, the older sister she had never had. Only a few years older than Emily, but already with a family of her own.

Emily’s mother opened her eyes and smiled at Alfred. Emily felt a twinge of jealousy. Her ma and Alfred loved each other so much that Emily often felt excluded by their private exchanges. She dropped back to her knees by the side of the sofa. ‘Mam, are you all right?’ She was vying for her mother’s attention, dragging her away from Alfred and feeling guilty for it.

‘Oh, there you are, queen,’ her mother whispered, with a hint of surprise. ‘I must have known you were home. I’m glad I woke up. Could you just grab the coupons, love, and go down to the shop for me before the kids come home?’

‘The kids are already home, love. They’ve gone straight to Rita’s,’ Alfred said, smiling at his wife. Rita’s little sons and their own were inseparable. ‘They’ll be back soon, queen. She took them straight from school.’

‘It’s like we have four little boys, or none at all,’ Emily said, extracting the ration books from the drawer in the wooden kitchen table. ‘One day we’ll find out which ones are ours, eh? When we can finally peel them apart.’ Even her mother laughed at that, although the effort made her cough.

There had been talk about the children in Arthur Street and George Street being evacuated. Too close to the docks for their own safety, the letter had said. Many of the children had already left, mostly to North Wales, but those whose parents refused to be parted from them, or believed the war would be over sometime soon, remained. ‘Our boys won’t be going anywhere,’ Alfred had said, when the letter arrived. ‘If a bomb gets us, we’ll go together.’

Emily had laughed. ‘A bomb won’t get us, Da, but still, it might be safer and easier for our mam if the children go. One of the women in the factory said that lots of the evacuees are being well fed. Those who have gone to North Wales are getting eggs and meat, and that’s as good a reason to agree to them going as anything else.’

Many of the children in Arthur Street had been evacuated to Rhyl the previous week and the women were still crying. Alfred had seen and heard them and he was adamant that he did not want the boys to be sent away, but Emily knew that perhaps the time was right. Maybe, now that her mother wasn’t coping at all any more and was no longer objecting to the idea of the sanatorium, it was time for Emily’s young siblings to join their peers. The thought of life without the boys at home and her mam away in a sanatorium made her feel she was falling into a pit of loneliness.

‘The war will be over before the kids even reach Wales,’ Alfred had said. ‘It’ll be a waste of a journey and besides, I don’t want no strangers looking after our kids. Yer ma wouldn’t sleep at night. Worried sick she would be.’

There was some truth in what Alfred said. Emily knew that this evening the kids were at Rita’s and having a great time, but she also knew that Rita was thinking of doing exactly the same thing. Her husband Jack was on the front line and he had written home weeks ago, instructing her to do just that. Rita hadn’t said anything yet, but Emily had seen the woman who organized the evacuee transport leaving her friend’s back yard only yesterday morning.

She had no idea how she and her da would manage without Rita. If her own children were evacuated, how could they accept her help? Rita struggled every day, but she never failed to help out, and in return Emily did what she could for her, including watching her boys while Rita did shifts down at the munitions factory at the weekends. No doubt, if Rita’s children were away, she would increase her shifts to full time, and why shouldn’t she? But it would mean she would no longer be there when they needed her. These troubled thoughts had run through Emily’s mind since yesterday, but now she needed to run to the shop and collect up the kids before dark fell.

‘I’ll run for the messages quick, Mam. I’ll be back in half an hour.’

Her mother smiled weakly. ‘You’re a good girl, Emily, the best. I’m lucky to have you.’ Emily kissed her on the brow and stood for a moment, breathing in the smell of hair that she dared not wash.

Before she left for the shop, she popped her head round Rita’s back door. ‘Give me your coupons, quick. The shop has butter in.’

‘God, you’re a love,’ said Rita, taking the coupons out of a drawer. ‘How’s yer mam? I took her some pearl barley soup in at lunch time, but she didn’t want it.’ Her face was full of concern for Emily, whose two young brothers had run over and grabbed her knees as soon as she walked into the kitchen.

‘We’re having the best fun here, Emily. Do you want to play too? Rita says we have to listen to the radio later, because there is going to be news about the war and she wants to know where Uncle Jack is. Are you coming to listen?’ Richard jumped up and down and looked up at her with eager eyes.

‘I will when I’ve done the jobs, love,’ Emily said, smiling at Rita. ‘And once the tea is cleared away we can play a game ourselves tonight, at home. As long as we are not too noisy. Mam is on the sofa we moved into the kitchen this morning, and she would love that.’

‘Mammy’s on the sofa. Mammy’s getting better,’ shouted Richard as he jumped up and down in excitement. Satisfied, he ran back off to play with the other boys.

‘I was there when Dr Gaskell came, Emily,’ said Rita. ‘Your da asked me to sit in, when he had to pop into the club to get his rota for the blackout. He said your mam had been pretty bad this morning. The doctor gave her an injection for the pain and he left some medicine in a brown bottle on the dresser. She’s to have it when the pain gets too bad. He said he wants to talk to your mam and da in the morning and they have to meet him at St Angelus. I was thinking, perhaps you might want me to go with him if you can’t?’ Emily was about to protest, but Rita went on, ‘Maisie Tanner has offered to take the boys to school. She loves your little Richard, thinks he’s a dote, and if she does that I can easily go to St Angelus. The doctor said he wants someone to be with your mam and da to listen to what he has to say and remember for them afterwards, and I said well that’s not a problem, it will be Emily or me. What do you think, love? Can you go? Or shall I? I think the doctor wants yer mam to be looked after by the St Angelus nurses and I know there are none better. My own mam was in St Angelus and she loved those nurses. Angels from Lovely Lane she called them. They all live in that big white house opposite the park gates. You know the one?’

Emily nodded. She herself had seen the nurses in their long skirts and capes and frilly hats, and when she was a little girl she thought she had never seen such pretty ladies. She had confided in no one, but all she had ever wanted to do was to become one of the angels. To wear the uniform and to look after people who were sick. But the war, Alfred’s being called up and then so badly wounded, her mother’s illness, two little boys to care for, her nursing duties at home, had all put a stop to that.

‘I’m going to leave work for good next Friday, Rita. I have to stay at home now. If Mam is taken into hospital, I can’t be at the factory all day. Can you go tomorrow and I’ll work out a week’s notice?’

‘Of course I can, love. If the doctor suggests she stays at St Angelus, I think it will be for the best. Your mam is going to need more help than we can give her soon. She will need those angels.’

Tears welled up in Emily’s eyes. ‘Rita, is my mam going to die?’

Rita dried her hands on her apron as she walked over to Emily. ‘Die? Of course not, love.’ She put her arms around the younger woman’s shoulders and hugged her. ‘She will be staying in St Angelus to be made better, just until there is a place in the sanatorium over the water, like Maisie Tanner’s mam. Now, come on, we have no time for crying, you and me. We have too much to do. Look, I’ve washed yer mam’s best nightie here and I’ve washed me own for her to take, too, for a spare. Pack those in her bag with some wash things and a headscarf to keep her hair nice. I was going to wash it for her – Alf and I, we had the range pumping out to keep the room warm, so the water was hot – but she wouldn’t let me. Truth is, I don’t think she could be bothered. Told us off for wasting the coke, she did. Wanted to save it until you kids got home to feel the benefit. Here’s me coupons; I’ll look after the kids. You go and get that bloody butter.’

She handed over the ration books and gave Emily another hug. ‘Go on now. I’ll have some soup ready for when you get back. Then you can crack on next door.’

*

When Emily reached the shop, she found Maisie Tanner in the queue in front of her. Emily knew she had been at school with Rita and was now married to Stan Tanner, who was away fighting the war, and they had a little girl who was about five or six years old. The family lived with Maisie’s mam and dad, and Emily was both touched and grateful that she had offered to look after the boys.

‘Hiya, Emily. How’s yer mam, love?’ Maisie greeted her warmly. ‘I’ve told Rita, I can do anything you want to help, queen. It’ll be no problem. Me mam was only saying tonight, she remembers the time your mam took a load of the kids to the shore at Crosby with Betty. Half a streetful they took. You remember yer mam’s mate Betty? She’s in Wales now, you know, sitting out the war.’

Emily did know. The Haycocks received a letter from Betty once a week, telling them they were mad for remaining in Liverpool and that the sea air in Trearddur Bay would be just what was needed for her mam’s chest to improve. Emily was beginning to wonder if she was right.

‘They pushed five kids in each pram and took them on and off the train. I’ll never know how they did it. God, it was a laugh. Our Brenda was one of the kids and she still remembers it. She’s never been since. Said she’ll never forget that day. I loved your mam, the poor thing.’

Emily couldn’t answer. Maisie’s use of the past tense was all she heard.
Loved?
It seemed to her that Maisie, who wasn’t very much older than herself, was wiser than she could ever be. Maisie made Emily feel as though she knew nothing.
Is that what marriage and children do to you, make you older and wiser?

‘Rita is going with Mam to see the doctor at St Angelus tomorrow,’ she said instead. ‘I’ve decided to work out my notice at the factory. I need to be at home. I can’t keep depending on others to help out.’

‘Well, it’s no trouble, but that’s smashing for your dad,’ Maisie replied. ‘You’re a good girl, Emily. Don’t you worry about a thing. It’s a great hospital, that St Angelus, you know. Some of the women on our street have started having their babies in there. My mam says they only go for the rest in bed. Seven days they make you stay, and they wash the baby and everything. You don’t have to lift a finger. The Angels’ Hotel, me mam calls it. She loved it in there, once she began to get better. I’d love our little Pammy to become one of those angels from Lovely Lane. God, I would be so proud I would burst if that happened. I think this one’s a lad, though. Never stops kicking, he doesn’t.’ Maisie laughed as she rubbed her belly. ‘I’m going to tell them to stop sending Stan home on leave. I don’t want another until this bloody war is over. Mind you, I suppose a year without is too long for any man and I don’t want our Stan getting wandering eyes, now do I?’

Emily blushed to the roots of her hair, but even as she did so it occurred to her that her street was full of angels.

The neighbours were wonderful. They took it in turns to sit with her ma, cook for her, bathe her, nurse her. The entire neighbourhood was full of angels and one of the best was Maisie Tanner.