My uncle Willie lived with me and me Ma when I was a teenager. He was an eccentric, erudite, eloquent hard worker and harder drinker. He was a painter and decorater, who took great pride in his work. When he painted a room it looked so perfect it was like the paint had grown out of the wall. He loved the Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and The Borstal Boy for that reason. He’d talk about literature with me when he got home from work (before he’d ramble down to the Belfry, The Muddy Boot, or The Cobblestone for his evening pints).
He’d plans to give up the gargle all together and write a novel when he hit thirty, but it wasn’t to be.
He moved to Boston in his mid twenties, and things didn’t always go great for him over there. He didn’t keep in touch much, and I had to go to Irish bars the city over to find him first time I visited, eventually tracking him down to Quincy. We drank that night, and even threw a few shapes (pictured).
It was always hard to get in touch with him though. Today is the 2nd anniversary of his death.
A few months after he died my book was launched. It wrecked me head to think he’d never get to read it, and part of me would shudder and feel guilty at the thought it should have been him launching his own novel. He’d a passionate thirst for literature and a beautiful turn of phrase.
But after he died, we got a surprise, when a daughter we didn’t know existed got in touch, a beautiful smart girl called Delilah. Even more uncanny, she’s a big reader too and a budding poet. And she looks like him. We were delighted and so proud to have this new, nearly grown addition to the family. And last week I was thrilled when her Ma posted a picture of her immersed in a pile of books. One of them is my own. So he never got to read it, but she will.
Willie also loved Dickens, and today me Ma posted this beautiful quote:
And can it be that in a world so full and busy, the loss of one weak creature makes a void in any heart, so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up.
But Delilah coming into our lives has done something to fill that gap.
Frankie Gaffney
08/15/2017