mammyMary Grace Dodds (Minnie)1927-2009 so finally i sang to you the spinning wheel that wheel having turned full circle through granny susan mallaghan you and me i know that you remembered because you shouted that i kept you awake through nineteen forty six a response to my demand that you should not disturb the woman dying in the room next door and then they came and attached two drips and the oxygen mask and i knew that you were on your way but somehow your muscles kept your lungs sucking life into your wasted frame suddenly we were alone because the others were on the ground floor drinking tea or talking to the nurses in the corridor all of us there from half seven in the morning and now it was half past three on a dull grey irish afternoon and looking down from the fifth floor there were all the little cars buses taxis shoppers living their lives and you were slipping into some dark void you started moaning after each painful gulp i touched your shoulder leant close to your deaf ear and crooned the story of eily and her lover the moaning stopped and i knew that you could hear the two of us alone with da gone too five years ago the two of us really alone for the first time since nineteen forty seven with da in singapore and for three minutes your moaning stopped then seconds later it began again but i knew that you had heard me and your mother sing to you by half past four the morphine shots had started and you were on the your way to meet your god |