Explanation (me time away from the blog)

14 October 2019
967

R. Linda:

When me Da died recently, he had just sold the family home much to Sheila and Mam's chagrin. Sheila was hoping to inherit it but two weeks before he died he sold it. He sold it to a man who was an unscrupulous type of house flipper. He knew Da had a mental disease and took advantage by getting the house way below what it was worth.

Well, Sheila had been helping clear out the home prior to the sale and the new owner when he took possession (without the benefit of a walk-through) shouted foul that he had bought the contents of the house and they had been "stolen" by Sheila. Well, as you can imagine this was news to her and me Da!

She brought some things back because the old one had passed and she didn't care to possess what he had her take. Some of the other furniture she certainly took as her legacy and told the new owner that. He decided it was easier to get a few things back than all of it so he agreed to her keeping some of the furniture. I will say here, there were personal items that the new owner should never have gotten in the first place so be careful with "as-is" sales. Me Da was under the impression his things and furniture he wanted to move with him, would go with him. Unfortunately, he ended up in hospital two days after the house sold and that in itself is another hard story.

So since late July, I've been involved in this drama going on across the pond with a few trips back and forth. I finally had a face full of it and told me sissy she was on her own, it was all too crazy with not much I could do but be supportive and half the things she was involved in I thought were too over the top. To keep from stressing her any more than she was I took a few steps back and our Mam stepped in.

That was not the idea I had of removing meself by her stepping in. As things got more and more dramatic over there (between Da's terminal illness and the new owner of the family abode getting ready to finalise the sale), Sheila got more and more angry and stressed until our Da passed and then she was battling Cormac, and well it was a bloody mess it was.

That is when Mam decided to go over to the old country and sort everyone out. I debated about accompanying her but I knew once Mam gets her teeth into someone's rear end she's like a dog worrying a bone, she isn't letting go until they drop one way or the other.

As a capable woman off she went with me shaking my head and hoping the phone didn't ring anytime soon with either her or me sister demanding me presence.

So as time went by (three days of no news being good news) the phone finally rang. It was Sheila.

"Me arse and Katty Barry!" Says she right off. "You'll never git wot be goin' on."

"Do I wanna knoo?" Says I back.

"Fer sure ya do. Mam's been' in charge an all, she be callin' Cormac a muppet an' he dus not take kindly ta it I tell ye. She keeps tellin' his arze to go back ta Stillorgan. I canny stoop er' frum it."

"Well, he be an eejit for all its worth frum wot I knoo," I said, "but why be she so at em'?"

"Because he took the feckin' walls out the top floor . . . gutted it he did indeed. An SHE be livid."

"Why'd he do dat?"

"Only St Patrick knoos. I tink he wants to rearrange da place up dere he duz." She said and I could almost imagine her shrugging her shoulders as she said it.

"Well, he bought it so . . . "

"Yeah, I knoo but Mam every time she goes ov' dere she sees sometin' else he's ripped oot and she goes flyin' inta a fit ov' it near taken hiz head off wit her words. But dat isn't da best part she's stressed beyond wot she went thro wit Da an' I tink you should git ov' here befur she has a heart attack or worse, kills Cormac."

"Wait, wots she doin' ov'dere anyhow?"

"We wants da hoous to keep its character we do an' he's takin' all dat oot."

"Indeed," said I, "it be his house, Sheila."

To top that off Mam and Sheila found out the insurance policy that Da had went to his girlfriend and not either of them (though Mam did not expect to get anything, but Sheila did). This made Sheila furious and Mam upset for Sheila.

As you can assume the house part was what last had me not so much the insurance because it figured. I wouldn't put it passed Sheila and Mam to come up with some plan of revenge short of bodily harm, more like getting this Cormac in some kind of property trouble or throwing a lawsuit at him whether it had merit or not. That threat was bandied about by both sides. He threatened them with his lawyer and they came right back at him. I tell ya!

So I booked a flight and OMG the house! Everything Sheila told me was true and worse than true. Cormac got an order banning me Mam from the property (probably a good thing for both of them). Of course, this got to her too and she was wound up like a snake in a hornet's nest. AND me sainted sister did her no good either. Every day she'd come home (we were staying at Sheila's and the Dolan person's house), with photos of the new destruction!

Every time the two of them would view the new photos of the day, Mam would make a sound like an intake of breath, a long downing in of audible air near to the sound of hyperventilation, much like "haugh". I even got her a paper bag to breathe in as she viewed one photo after the other of the devastating destruction to the home she lived in for more than 46 years! Sheila was no better and I ended up getting another bag for her. I can tell you there be nothing more entertaining than two women breathing into paper bags, each one breathing louder than the other, eyes near popping out of their heads, the free hands pointing to the photography destruction with each new picture, one after the other, and me sitting between them finding it all too insane.

THIS be what has them both - the entire room, bath and back room GONE

"He news nuthin' bout ancient homes an' keepin' dem historical," Mam said coming out from the bag breathing. "He be modernising our old home an' destroying all da character o'it."

"Well, maybe it will be better." I foolishly ventured.

"BETTAH? Are ye nuuts? All dat werk we put inta dat dere hoous an' well . . . " and her voice trailed off, her eyes sad.

I gave her a hug and just as we broke the embrace there was the banging open of the door and there stood the Dolan person, his eyes glittering with happiness and he said, "MAM! I bought ye da kitchen!"

What he did was go over to the old house and Cormac (clever man he be) put the Dolan person to work to shut his piehole! Yes, traitor, he was in Mam's eyes, but it was an extra bit of change he was bringing home so in the Dolan person's eyes WHY NOT help Cormac destroy his wife and mother-in-law's beloved house?

Seems Cormac had pulled all the kitchen cabinets out including the granite countertops. The kitchen was remodelled maybe ten years ago and was Mam's pride and joy. She had mentioned to me several times how she missed the fireplace in the kitchen and how she wished we had one in ours. I don't think she particularly missed the cabinets but well, we three followed Sheila's love of her life to the garage and there was the entire upper and lower cabinetry and countertops. Missing only was the kitchen sink and dishwasher, but wait for it, the dishwasher was coming!

"Ok so listen up Dolan," me Mam said looking at the remains of her beloved kitchen, "wot am I ta do wit dis ere'? Because I live across da pond an' dere be no way I can take dis ere' an' Gabe's house has a kitchen an' I dunno." She threw up her hands in frustration.

Obviously, Dolan hadn't thought of any of that. And now here he and Shiela had a whole bunch of cabinetry and a dishwasher they didn't need! I tell ya what be the matter with his brain he didn't think this all through.

"So we'll sell it!" He says brightly. "Split the money all around."

"Jus' when I taught em' a traitorous gack he cooms oop wit a good idea," Mam whispered to me.

In the following few days of my stay, the Dolan person brought back small nicknacks that Mam hoped to never see again because they reminded her of me less than saintly Da. He brought back items that she had never seen before and surmised were from me Da's girlfriend which really set her off. He brought back stories (the worst of all) about Cormac's vision for the old place which had the paper bags out.

I finally convinced her to leave and come home with me that there was pretty much nothing she could do about Cormac or the old house. That the stress was doing her no good and I blamed that on the two Dolans for bringing her 'stuff' and photographs. It was, and is a lost cause so really why expend the energy to save something that has good and mostly bad memories?

We are back now as you know. This foolishness has taken a great chunk of wasted time out of my life. The funeral arrangements were enough to send a sane person to an asylum and now this sale of the house be taking its toll on all of us. I keep telling them it's history, you can't change it, time to move on, but that falls on deaf ears of those near and dear who just can't seem to let go.

Anyway, I thought since I have got emails asking me where I've been, I'd give you a wee taste of just where I was and hope not to be anytime soon.

Gabe
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