Secrets My Mother Kept Read Online Free PDF

Pat.
    She nodded.
    I knew all about weddings since I had been a bridesmaid.
    ‘And will he be coming home now?’ I added. The only memories I had of Michael at that time were as a brief visitor when he had occasionally come home on leave.
    Pat gave me a look. ‘I don’t think so; not yet,’ she said and changed the subject quickly.
    They were married in Isobel’s home village near to Malaga but none of our family were able to attend. The fare to Spain would have been as out of reach to us then as a flight to the moon would be now! They did send photos though, and when I looked at them I thought they were like characters from the pictures.
     
    In the same year that Michael and Isobel got married, our class began to be ‘prepared’ for our First Holy Communion. This meant learning lots of things by heart, which I was quite good at. It also meant making our first confession. We had to confess our sins first so that we would be free from sin when we went to receive Jesus in the communion bread and wine. The problem was we were only six or seven. We didn’t have any sins to confess so we made them up. We knew that telling lies, being unkind to our sisters and brothers, swearing and murder were all very bad sins so we confessed them. Apart from murder that is; I don’t think any of us confessed to that one!
    When the big day came we lined up in the church pew and knelt down to remember our sins and to pray for forgiveness. When it was my turn to go into the confessional box I was quite excited. I pulled the door that was already slightly ajar and slipped in. I could remember the words we had to say to the priest who was in the other side of the box. He couldn’t see me and I couldn’t see him.
    ‘Bless me Father for I have sinned. This is my first confession,’ I began.
    The priest said some prayers and then asked me what I had done.
    ‘I have lied, I smacked my sister and I was cheeky to my mum.’
    None of this was true, of course, but I had to say something and these sins sounded along the right kind of lines.
    The priest forgave me. ‘Say two Hail Mary’s and one Our Father and don’t sin again.’
    I left the confession box feeling ten feet tall. I was a forgiven sinner at last!
    I was to make my Holy Communion in June. For Catholics, making your first Holy Communion is really important. For a start you get a new white dress and a veil and everyone looks at you and gives you presents. I was so excited.
    However, the question of my dress was posing some problems for my family. One afternoon Margaret and I were looking through a big thick catalogue imagining the clothes we were going to buy.
    ‘That white one’s nice. And it’s not too . . .’
    Mum looked over our shoulders. ‘Hmm. We’ll have to wait and see.’
    I bit my lip. What would I do if I didn’t have a communion dress? It wasn’t mentioned again for a while so I tried not to think about it. Then one day a letter arrived from Michael. That afternoon after school Mum had some news for me. My dress was on its way! Michael’s new wife was a dressmaker, and a Catholic as well, so understood the importance of the occasion. She was going to make my dress!
    Over the next few weeks she made me a beautiful, simple white dress that she hand stitched and embroidered. It wasn’t fancy or frilly, but was made from fine white cotton with narrow white ribbon threaded through it across the bodice, round the sleeves and the hem. It also had a little Peter Pan collar, which I loved. She also made a replica dress for my little sister Margaret to wear so that we would look alike. But Margaret wasn’t having a veil; that was special for me.
    The day it arrived in the post, carefully packaged in tissue paper, my fingers were trembling with excitement.
    Once I had made my Holy Communion it meant that I was old enough to walk in the May processions. These were very big events where all of the little girls and boys who had made their first Holy Communion would