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Back A Family Reunion Save as PDF
Chapters (66)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. PART ONE
  6. CHAPTER ONE
  7. CHAPTER TWO
  8. CHAPTER THREE
  9. CHAPTER FOUR
  10. CHAPTER FIVE
  11. CHAPTER SIX
  12. CHAPTER SEVEN
  13. CHAPTER EIGHT
  14. CHAPTER NINE
  15. CHAPTER TEN
  16. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  17. CHAPTER TWELVE
  18. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  19. PART TWO
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  24. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  25. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  39. PART THREE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  57. CHAPTER FIFTY
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
  59. CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
  60. CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
  61. CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
  62. CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
  63. CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
  64. EPILOGUE
  65. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  66. About the Author

‘OK,’ Keelin sighed, wishing this auntie who worked as a nun in Africa would hurry up and get her visit over with so that life could get back to normal. Since her mother had heard that her sister ‘the nun’ was coming home for her first visit in more than ten years, she’d nearly driven Keelin mad with all the extra housework that had to be done. The net curtains had been taken down and washed. Keelin had to clean all the windows until they gleamed. The tiles in the kitchen had had to be regrouted, and Imelda had ordered new lino for the floor. Larry was instructed to plant more summer bedding than usual, although Keelin had to admit the pots of cascading petunias, hollyhocks, busy lizzies and campanula that her father had planted made the garden look ever so pretty.

Keelin straightened up the flower-sprigged bedspread with the lemon frill. She had a pillowcase to match. Her friend Lisa thought Keelin had a very posh bedroom and envied her having a room to herself. Lisa had to share with her two sisters. Their room always looked like a pigsty.

She was lucky, Keelin admitted. She was one of only three girls in her class to have a bedroom to herself. But she was also one of the only girls who had to work on Saturdays, whether she wanted to or not. Keelin had to stock shelves in her parents’ supermarket on Saturday mornings, and her brothers had to help their grandfather and uncle up on the bog in Ardcloch to earn their pocket money. Some of her friends were having the whole summer off, scot-free. She was babysitting for one of her mother’s friends three mornings a week.

Lucky for Keelin that she liked the little boy she was minding. He was a real cutie. She smiled thinking of him. She was teaching him his ABCs on his toy blackboard, but one day she wanted to be standing in front of a real blackboard, teaching. It was what she planned when she left school. Study at Carysfort Teacher Training College in Dublin and become a primary school teacher. Her parents had told her if she studied hard and did well in her exams she could apply for a place in college. Imelda in particular was very keen that it should happen for her.