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Chapters (84)
  1. All the Days of Our Lives
  2. 1945
  3. 1931-1944
  4. I
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. 1946
  28. II
  29. Twenty-Three
  30. Twenty-Four
  31. Twenty-Five
  32. Twenty-Six
  33. III
  34. Twenty-Seven
  35. Twenty-Eight
  36. Twenty-Nine
  37. IV
  38. Thirty
  39. Thirty-One
  40. Thirty-Two
  41. V
  42. Thirty-Three
  43. Thirty-Four
  44. Thirty-Five
  45. VI
  46. Thirty-Six
  47. Thirty-Seven
  48. 1948-1949
  49. VII
  50. Thirty-Eight
  51. Thirty-Nine
  52. Forty
  53. VIII
  54. Forty-One
  55. Forty-Two
  56. Forty-Three
  57. IX
  58. Forty-Four
  59. Forty-Five
  60. Forty-Six
  61. X
  62. Forty-Seven
  63. Forty-Eight
  64. Forty-Nine
  65. Fifty
  66. Fifty-One
  67. Fifty-Two
  68. Fifty-Three
  69. Fifty-Four
  70. XI
  71. Fifty-Five
  72. Fifty-Six
  73. XII
  74. Fifty-Seven
  75. Fifty-Eight
  76. XIII
  77. Fifty-Nine
  78. XIV
  79. Sixty
  80. XV
  81. Sixty-One
  82. Sixty-Two
  83. 1953
  84. All the Days of Our Lives

He looked back solemnly at her. ‘What about your mother, Katie?’

She frowned. ‘What about her?’

‘In the end she was the one who brought you up all those years – for all her faults. Should you not let her know? I mean . . .’ His kindly face crinkled into a smile. ‘Wild horses wouldn’t be able to stop me coming, if that’s what you’d like – but shouldn’t you ask her first?’

Sixty-Two

Amid what was a time of busyness, of the careful buying of satin and lace for a wedding dress, Katie decided to give her mother one last chance. She was one of the lucky ones – she had a mother alive somewhere, so far as she knew. Perhaps she should try to rise above the past and take any steps she could to heal things. Without telling anyone else she was doing it, she posted a card to Enid Thomas, telling Enid her address, that she was getting married and that she thought Vera ought to know. Writing the card brought back a lot of bitter emotions and she half hoped there would be no reply. And, as the days passed, she decided there wasn’t going to be one.

Then, one day, it came. After work she came home to find a brief letter, in Enid’s painstaking looped hand. Enid had written:

I’ve tried to find out where you mother is. I’m not well myself, so can’t go far. She moved away months ago and no one can tell me anything. Truth to tell, we’d lost touch. She had got to be such a hard, bitter woman and kept herself to herself, didn’t want anybody. Sorry that’s all I know.

I hope you’ll be very happy, Katie. Come and see me sometime and let me meet him.

Regards,

Enid

Katie stared at the words, bitter for a moment, and sad, but knowing that she was also relieved. When Marek came home she showed it to him. He studied the flimsy sheet of paper, then silently came and put his arms around her.

‘It’s all right, I’ve got all I need,’ she said. And held him tight.

There were also arrangements to be made in the house for after they were married. This turned out to be simple: Marek would move into the attic, and Sybil suggested that Katie make a curtain to divide off Michael’s end of the room, for the sake of a little privacy. There was the usual daily round of work and looking after Michael, and there were those close, private loving times.

As the spring came they would take walks in the park, sometimes with Michael, or later, once he was asleep. It was bliss walking round amid the greening trees, even if they did still have to wrap up warm. They would hold hands, stopping often to kiss in the seclusion of the trees, and talk endlessly, planning their future.