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Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise for
  3. ALSO BY PATTI CALLAHAN HENRY
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Prologue
  7. Chapter One
  8. Chapter Two
  9. Chapter Three
  10. Chapter Four
  11. Chapter Five
  12. Chapter Six
  13. Chapter Seven
  14. Chapter Eight
  15. Chapter Nine
  16. Chapter Ten
  17. Chapter Eleven
  18. THE MEMORY BOOK
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. THE MEMORY BOOK
  22. Chapter Fourteen
  23. Chapter Fifteen
  24. Chapter Sixteen
  25. Chapter Seventeen
  26. Chapter Eighteen
  27. THE MEMORY BOOK
  28. Chapter Nineteen
  29. Chapter Twenty
  30. Chapter Twenty-one
  31. THE MEMORY BOOK
  32. Chapter Twenty-two
  33. Chapter Twenty-three
  34. Chapter Twenty-four
  35. Chapter Twenty-five
  36. THE MEMORY BOOK
  37. Chapter Twenty-six
  38. Chapter Twenty-seven
  39. Chapter Twenty-eight
  40. Chapter Twenty-nine
  41. Chapter Thirty
  42. Chapter Thirty-one
  43. Chapter Thirty-two
  44. Chapter Thirty-three
  45. Chapter Thirty-four
  46. Chapter Thirty-five
  47. Epilogue
  48. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  49. Readers Guide
  50. About the Author
  51. What’s next onyour reading list?

“Yes, I did.” He straightened and pushed the photo away. He glanced at the next one. “And this pub I found here.” His smile was sad, a mere lifting of the edges of his lips.

“Is O’Shea’s where you first heard ‘The Lark in the Clear Air’?” That was Shane asking, his voice quiet so not to scare away the memories if he spoke too loudly. “And that’s why you named this pub . . .”

“Yes.” Gavin’s smile was real then, reaching into the rivers of wrinkles at his eyes. “And it was my wedding song, indeed it was.”

With that, he stood, turned quickly and moved to the far end of the bar to greet another patron, whistling his favorite song.

THE MEMORY BOOK

Interview with Mr. Bivins

Colleen held a sepia-toned photo. Gavin and Elizabeth Donohue stood in front of the brick pub holding a baby, less than a year old, wrapped tightly in a blanket, a head full of curls emerging from the folds. Another man, Mr. Bivins, the real estate agent, stood a foot away from Elizabeth wearing a dark suit and a file of papers that he held to the camera. Gavin’s arm was flung over Elizabeth’s shoulders and a grin spread across his face. Elizabeth, with a lacquered bob, held the baby in one arm and had slipped the other around her husband’s waist. She wore a flowered sundress and large Jackie O sunglasses. Gavin wore a dark suit with a crooked green tie. Sunlight fell in long stretches, offering Gavin the appearance of being showered with light. In small script at the bottom of the photo, in the white band framing it, were the words “January 1982.”

Colleen sat at a long dark faux-mahogany table in Mr. Bivins’s realty office, a table where clients signed closing forms and wrote checks for new homes or businesses. The air conditioner was set to arctic and Colleen ran her hands up and down her bare arms. Seated across from her, Mr. Bivins wore a black suit with a pale blue hankie poking from the top left pocket. His tie, also pale blue, had a stain of something resembling ketchup on the bottom corner. His face was earnest and round; rimless spectacles sat atop the red bulb at the end of his nose as he looked down at the photo.

After some chitchat about the weather and the new restaurant downtown, Colleen pointed to the photo. “You see, I’m wondering what day this was about. All of us in front of the pub and you holding those papers?”

“Closing day. We didn’t think it would happen and that’s why I have that silly grin on my face.”

“Closing? I’m confused.”