Chapter 50
50
‘What on earth was so important that I needed to come all the way to Sandpiper Shore?’ Mum blurted out as soon as she walked through my front door. ‘You know I have bowls on a Monday afternoon and I’ve had to cancel it to make the five-and-a-half-hour journey to Cornwall. This had better be good, lady. I’m using the train next time. At least there’s a lav. I’ve sat in umpteen roadworks and there’s nothing worse than sitting in a traffic jam after you’ve just gone past a services to make your bladder feel immediately full. Twenty-five miles until the next one too. Can you imagine how mortified I was when I was so desperate I had to empty a whole tin of Quality Street out into the passenger seat and use the tin to have a wee in? The lorry driver in the cab next to me got a right old display. Thank goodness for his sake that I was wearing a skirt.’
Despite knowing that I was about to drop a bomb into her world, I laughed at her being such a drama queen the minute she flounced through my door. I loved this woman more than she would ever know.
‘Hello, Mum.’
‘Hello, darling. Present for you.’
She handed me the tub and I mock heaved.
‘I did say that one day you’d be cleaning up after me when I was incontinent.’
‘You did, Mum, but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so soon.’
‘Bloody hell, Jo. This place is absolutely gorgeous. I knew from the before and after photos that you’d worked wonders. But the photos do not do it justice. Let’s have a cuppa and then you can tell me all about why I’m here. The grand tour of the house can wait till later. I don’t think I can wait any longer.’
I took a deep breath and everything came tumbling out.
After sharing the news about Tessa to my confusion about my feelings towards Seamus, Mum was silent and I couldn’t gauge at all what she was thinking as she gazed out at the sea. Leaving her with her thoughts, I went to make yet another pot of tea, not because I wanted one, but because I needed to do something.
When I returned to the lounge, she turned to me, took the tray from my hands and placed it on the table. She held both of my hands in hers.
‘Darling, I’d like to meet Tessa. Could you arrange that, do you think? I think we need to talk.’
Mum and I walked up the hill to her smallholding, no words needed along the way, both of us lost in our thoughts.
Tessa opened the door before we had chance to knock and we all went through to the lounge where, despite being invited to take a seat, Mum remained standing and turned to face the woman we now both knew to be my birth mother.
As I looked between these two women, I realised that both in looks and personality, they were as different as chalk and cheese, but that between them, they were united by me. They were both responsible for my existence here today. One gave me up and one took me on. One gave me life and one taught me about life.
Mum walked over to Tessa and I wondered if she was going to slap her face. But her face broke into a smile and she launched herself at Tessa, flinging her arms around her and whispering, ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’
Tessa hung on to her, the exact same words leaving her mouth. Tears fell freely from all three of us and suddenly my heart felt like it was too big for my body. But I knew that one way or another, everything was going to be OK and for the first time in my life, I felt something that I never knew I needed. To feel complete.