Angels in My Hair Read Online Free PDF Page A

was playing: I didn't bother to explain – they wouldn't have
understood.
    At the end of the afternoon we were exhausted from all the
running about and were looking forward to getting home and
having supper. However, even before we turned the corner
into the Old Kilmainham road, where our house was, I knew
something was wrong. Two very big angels were walking up
the road towards me and I knew from the way they approached
that something terrible had happened. When they reached me
they each put an arm around me, and as we walked up the road
they told me that the roof of our house had fallen in. I was
shocked.
    When we got to the house I was horrified by what I saw. I
couldn't take my eyes off it: a large part of the roof had
collapsed. My Da tried to open the door but he couldn't get it
open, and when he forced it with his shoulder a cloud of dust
came out. Inside nothing was recognisable – it was just rubble.
When the roof collapsed it had brought the ceilings crashing
down. To my child's eyes the house was all broken. I
remember thinking, where are we going to sleep now? We
climbed in over the rubble, and to my little child's legs each bit
of concrete or stone seemed enormous. There was dust
everywhere and everything was broken into smithereens – all
the furniture, all our toys, all mum's precious things. I saw her
crying as she picked up things from the ground and I stood in
shock just watching Mum and Da try to salvage things. I
remember Mum picking up a little dark brown milk jug with a
cream stripe and saying, 'This is all that's left in one piece.'
    That jug was all that was left of her wedding presents – she
had so little, and now all she had was gone. I still remember
seeing the tears in her eyes. It made me cry, too, in fact all of
us cried, except my Da. He told us not to cry, that he would
make things all right. Somehow, Mum and Da cleaned things
up a little and Da propped the roof up a bit so we could sleep
there that night, but it was very dangerous. I slept thinking
about the fact that our house had fallen in and wondered, what
will we do now, where will we go?
    We were homeless, now, and Da had also lost his livelihood.

Chapter Three
Stairway to Heaven
    Thankfully, my cousin Nettie came to our rescue. She lived in
a big house on her own even though she was hardly more than
a child herself. A year or two earlier, at sixteen, she had
inherited the house when both her parents had died. I don't
know quite how it was agreed, and if we paid rent, but we went
to live with her in her house in Ballymun on the north side of
Dublin City – miles from Old Kilmainham.
    At first I felt miserable moving – I loved Old Kilmainham –
but when I got to Ballymun and saw the big garden and the big
rooms I was happy.Most importantly, this house was solid and
I knew it would never fall down. It had three bedrooms
upstairs and, a real luxury, an indoor loo and a bath. Downstairs
there was a lovely long kitchen at the back overlooking
the garden, a front room and Nettie's bedroom, which had
probably originally been a dining room.
    The house had a magical garden; no garden since has ever
seemed as big to me.We had so many adventures there. There
was even a hay stack and, when there was a birthday party,
sweets would be hidden in it. When he had time, Da grew
vegetables – rows and rows of vegetables – everything you
could think of, including peas, which we loved to pop, and he
built huge strawberry beds.
    At that time there were five children in the family. My
brother Barry was only a baby, and between him and me there
were two girls, Helen and Aoife, and then, of course, Emer, my
older sister. I didn't play much with my brother and sisters; I
only played with them when there was a birthday party or
something like that. I suppose I had different interests to them.
I saw the world with different eyes.
    At first my new life was a little lonely, but I soon made new
friends. I got to know the little girl, Rosaleen, who lived on