There is much fear associated with becoming old; fear of being caught on A&E trolley for days on end, or living in isolation. Much in our society reminds us of the negative side of growing old. And yet, this is not the truth. A celebration of life and living among Ireland's elderly, this work explores the fun of growing old gracefully.
Campbell Armstrong met his first wife Eileen in Glasgow when they were both young. She was Jewish, the only daughter of an Orthodox family. When they married, Eileen showed Campbell the scar on her belly - the result of a Caesarean birth at 17. The baby had been given up for adoption in Yorkshire while Eileen got on with her life in Glasgow. The couple subsequently had three sons, and moved to America where Armstrong followed a career as an academic. He was also a drunk, a drug user and a belligerent partner. Though their marriage foundered, the pair remained good friends. Years later, when Armstrong had remarried and moved to Ireland, his son received a call from Eileen: she had cancer and was dying. The family flew out to America to see her. At the same time, far off in a Yorkshire house, a forty year old woman was trying to trace her mother. She was Barbara - her mother Eileen. After many hitches, the two get together and the awful truth is revealed, that Barbara, too, has cancer. What carries the two women through is their remarkable, positive personalities and - overall - an abiding love and integrity. This is a unique, poignant and incredibly positive memoir, full of candid self-knowledge and, ultimately, hope and love.
What do you do when you are forgotten by the man you’ve loved for twenty years? What do you do if you are the one who is remembered? Frankie Sicari is roused from sleep late one night by a key rattling in the front door lock. It’s her ex-husband, Charley Blackwell: a man she hasn’t seen for nearly a quarter of a century. What’s baffling is that Charley seems to think they are still married, and has no recollection of his current wife, Hannah. When medical tests reveal shocking findings, Frankie finds herself reluctantly caring for the man who left her twenty years earlier, while Hannah is relegated to the sidelines. How can Frankie forgive the man who abandoned her when she needed him most? And how can Hannah cope with the impending death of the man she’s loved for the past twenty years – especially now she is faced with the shattering truth that he has never stopped loving his first wife, Frankie?