Because we are more than halfway through this story, I thought (and Andrea1984 suggested) that it would be beneficial for all you, my lovely readers, to have a Family Tree so that you'll know exactly who is who ;) Thank you all for reading, reviewing, following and favouriting this story! It truly means a lot to me. I hope that you're all having a wonderful Christmas-time with your families! Also, enjoy the new chapter! - Bathsheba Blythe
FAMILY TREE
James "Jem" Blythe + Faith Meredith (Married in 1921) = House on the Hill, Glen St Mary
Walter "Walt" John Blythe (b. 1922)
Cecilia "Lily" Una Blythe (b. 1923)
Anne "Marion" Rosemary Blythe (b. 1924)
Anne "Nan" Blythe + Gerald "Jerry" Meredith (Married in 1920) = Honey Cottage, Glen St Mary
Josephine "Jo" Diana Meredith (b. 1920)
- Fleur Hester Sutton (b. 1943)
John Noah Meredith (b. 1922)
Diana "Di" Blythe + Jack Wright (Married in 1923) = Green Gables, Avonlea
Ada Anne Wright (b. 1924)
David Jack Wright (b. 1925)
Shirley Blythe + Emma McMillan (Married in 1925) = Farm House, Four Winds
Matthew "Will" William Blythe (b. 1926)
Susan Anna Blythe (b. 1929)
Cordelia "Delia" Amelia Blythe (b. 1934)
Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe + Kenneth "Ken" Ford (Married in 1919) = House of Dreams, Four Winds
Gilbert "Gilly" Blythe Ford (b. 1920)
Selwyn Owen Ford (b. 1922)
Hester Leslie Ford (b. 1924)
Poppy Joyce Ford (b. 1943)
Thomas "Carl" Meredith + Persis Ford (Married in 1923) = Gillingham, England
Thomas "Tom" John Meredith (b. 1924)
Dawn Leslie Meredith (b. 1927)
Bruce Meredith + Louise Jones (Married in 1938) = Kingsport, Canada
- Violet Flora Meredith + Rose Mary Meredith (b. 1939)
Una Meredith + Liam Evans (Married in 1943) = Green Cottage, Four Winds
Mary Vance + Miller Douglas (Married in 1919) = Rosefield House, Four Winds
- Marshall Timothy Douglas (b. 1920)
- Cornelia Martha Douglas (b. 1922)
- Vance Una Douglas (b. 1924)
Chapter XXVI
12th August 1943
Dear Diary,
Today was the day. Auntie Una is no longer Una Meredith but she is now Una Evans and officially a wife to Liam. I could not be happier for the two of them and especially Auntie. She was glowing today and I couldn't for the entire world see where and how she is actually forty-seven years old! She looked no more than thirty! She wore her mother's wedding dress, Grandma's Cecilia's. It is grey now even though as Grandpa John emphasised it was pure white once, but I swear I haven't seen a more beautiful dress. It was laced with a lovely flower pattern. The whole of last month my own Mum and my other Aunties spent hours adding small beads, which look like little pearls, to it. Such beauty this dress is! And what a beauty our Auntie Una was today (not that she isn't on any other day but on this day especially so)!
Her face was glowing, her cheeks were pink, her black hair was tied carefully behind and she had a flower crown underneath her veil, a veil of Grandma's Rosemary. Grandpa John walked her down the aisle to the smiling and beyond happy (not to mention very handsome) Liam Evans who took Auntie Una's hands in his own and I promise you that what passed between the two of them when they took one another's hands in that moment was something I will never forget, ever. It was simply magic.
I was a bridesmaid, so were Vance, Marion, Lily (who came back from her training in Toronto for only this one special day!), Ada and Daria too. Susan was a flower girl and she was simply the prettiest girl today in her pink dress which made her look so sweet and timid as she always is, I could kiss her all day long, even though she is fourteen years old already! Delia, Susan's sister, too was a flower girl and she looked just as delicious and because she is younger of the whole eight years, I did kiss her cheeks all day long. Our dresses as bridesmaids were beige and very fancy indeed (even though they were made from old dresses of our mothers!) and I must say that I felt very much like a princess on that day too, especially because Auntie Nan and her daughter Jo themselves made for us the flower crowns and put them on our heads as if we were nothing but royalty.
The party was wonderful and we danced and sang all the time. I played my cello and a violin for everyone and I wasn't even scared to do it this time, probably because it was such a perfect in every way day. Lily was there, and we were so glad because of that! She was talking about how excited and ready she already feels to go overseas and, of course, we do worry about her but yet we know that she'll be fine either ways.
Una and Liam settled down at their small but cosy house in… Four Winds! Only four minutes away from our very own House of Dreams! It is quite literally a dream come true for everyone, including myself for I love Auntie Una, I always did, I do and I always will.
Poppy didn't cry at all during the day and instead she was gurgling and making those adorable sounds which I truly adore. I cannot get enough of my little sister (neither can Daria to be quite honest!) and today she was dressed in the sweetest blue dress with tiny white shoes on her small feet. Her auburn fuzz is already very much visible and her dress really matched that hair of hers. We took quite a lot of family photographs and I can't wait to send them to Gilly and Selwyn. Especially to show them another photograph of their sisters, Poppy and Daria who both looked delighftul today.
Did I write in here about my brothers' reaction to the arrival of little Poppy? I don't think I had time to do so but I'll write it down now. Gilly wrote that he cried with happiness when he received the telegram about the arrival of Poppy which made his heart not only burn with pain that he can't see her right here and right now but also because he is so happy that our family is getting bigger and that he has another sister to tease in the future. Selwyn also weeped over the news and wished he was here more than he wished before. My heart cries at that very thought but at the same time I know that it was God's will for them not to be here at the birth of Poppy, why we might never know, but it was.
I can't wait for them to see her eventually, whenever that might be. I can't still quite believe that I am not their only sister now. But I don't mind that at all, I love little Poppy to the core of my heart and I would never swap her for anyone nor anything. She is our treasure, just like our Fleur, Jo's little duaghter who grows so fast it's hardly possible to acknowledge! Fleur's already trying to walk! It is truly wonderful to have two small babies in our family. They add this very much needed hope for the better days to come and I absolutely adore spending time with both Poppy and Fleur.
Darling Daria was very much wistful that she wasn't there when Poppy was born but then I told her that everything happens for a reason and after all now she can spend all her free time with her and my own new sister. I still can't quite believe that Poppy is almost a month old already and yet it seems to me that there was never a time when she actually wasn't here with us! Mum is simply overwhelmed with her, in a positive way that is. She is still a bit weak after her birth and that is why I don't have as much lessons as I normally would. I stay at home for as much as I can, helping to clean and cook as well as take care of Poppy when Mums has to go for a meeting at the Red Cross. I do not mind any of that at all.
I think I was born to be a mother. Yes, of course, I was born to be a musician, to play my wonderful cello and a violin, as well as the piano. I love music and it is my greatest passion which I nurture inside of my heart every day as I always have been. But children, babies and taking care of them is something different, it's this something. When I was very little, about seven years old, I wanted to have four children. Two boys and two girls I was always saying. Then the war started and I didn't think about that kind of thing at all. Then Seb came into my life so unexpectadly and this old/new dream of mine came back to its surface and I could see it so very clearly in my mind, I even imagined the faces of the children we would have together… Oh… It all seems so far far away and such a long time ago when I was thinking those thoughts! It's been only a few months though! Seb then left for the front but this dream stayed with me. I suppose that's because I didn't want it to go away.
Those dreams stayed with me also because I've started helping out in Auntie Una's orphanage. It might be only once a week, but it is that one day a week when I see those little darlings, all in different ages but all with beautiful little souls that still need nurturing of them. Also, at the orphanage, I learnt so many new things about how to actually care for the children, especially the littlest ones. I almost feel like a new mother myself whilst putting those angels, who just fell asleep on my shoulders, back into their cots.
When Fleur was born and I saw that new version of my dear Jo, for a moment I have to admit, I actually envied her, for having this little baby of her own, no matter the circumstances in which Jo actually did become pregnant. Then, of course, this feeling vanished and I do love our dearest Fleur and she's is a dear little baby girl and her mama is the best mama she could ever get (even though Jo questions it way too many times during the day).
And now the sweet sister of mine, Poppy, has made her arrival. Because I care for her even though less than Mum of course, I still do and this dream of mine is constantly reappearing now and then, especially before I go to sleep and just when I lie in my bed awake, after saying my prayer. I know I am young, I know I don't have any kind of sweetheart or a "crush" as some say. But I also know that I've always been very mature for my age and that is another reason why I think of my future in those terms more frequently than I used to before. I seek settlement. That's what it is. How will I actually achieve it, though? God knows how and when. It's exciting to know (and a bit scary) to know that it's coming my way.
I shall be going to sleep now, it's already almost midnight and after the whole long and exhaustingly wonderful day I do need a rest whether I like it or not. Sleep is such a waste of time!
Oh, one more thing! Daria is trying to teach me a bit of Polish and I must say that well, as beautiful as this language is, it is very, very hard for me to learn it! Daria is always laughing at the funny way I say words she says with such elegance and no effort at all. I don't mind learning, though! I laugh along with her!
Goodnight then,
Or as the Polish people would say it (and what Daria says to me every night):
Dobranoc,
Yours,
Hester
"I still can't get my head around it." Ada said.
"Neither can I." Jo sighed.
"Will is only seventeen years old!" Hester said with worry in her voice.
"He doesn't know what he's about to do…" Daria shook her head.
"He'll be alright though." Vance said quietly.
"I agree." Marion said just as quietly "He will."
Hester sat on the blanket in the garden of the House of Dreams. She was surrounded by Jo with little Fleur sleeping peacefully in her arms, Ada who was in Four Winds for that very last day before going back to Avonlea, Daria who was now braiding Jo's brown locks from behind, and finally Vance and Marion who were sitting on each side of Hester, looking at one another as if trying to read each other's minds with no difficulty at all.
It could have been cold and raining, and so very much the opposite to the weather that actually occured on that day, and all of them would not be able to be more downhearted and worried about their cousin Will. Will turned seventeen a week earlier and without telling anyone about it, he went to town and came back in the evening in a brand new uniform of the Land Army with a slip of paper stating that he'll be going for training in only three days time.
Of course, Will lied about his age but because he already looked more than twenty years old anyway, he passed the first examination and was allowed to enlist. When he came back home he found his mother, Emma, sisters Susan and Delia along with his father Shirley in such a state of worry and yet cetrainty of what he was doing at the time when he wasn't at home, that once he was inside of his home everyone embraced him and prayed over his head. There was no point in arguing or questioning his actions, the only sensible thing to do for not just Will's sisters and parents but his entire family was to simply hope for the best.
However, it was very hard to believe that now Will too was in the army and almost ready to face all the horrors of this war which seemed to have been going on since forever, Hester thought. Now there was no one in Hester's family, not a single boy left who wasn't involved in the horrors of the war. "He's so young." Jo sighed and looked down on her daughter who was sucking her thumb and she grinned lightly at her.
"They all are." Hester said with a frown of worry and wistfulness on her face "I don't know how I'm going to survive the rest of this war with everyone I love dearest and who is a man," she looked briefly at Ada who squeezed her hand "-is near danger and horror at the front. Everyone!" she put her hands in despair on her flushed face when a few, fresh tears started to come out of her hazel eyes.
Daria embraced her so quickly that it almost surprised the girls around them "Kochanie," she said to her softly while stroking her hair "You are so strong, Hester! You must know and feel, at least, that they will be alright, I hope you do."
Hester looked up at Daria and wiped away her tears "I always hope." she said "But sometimes I'm so tired of hoping, I just feel angry. Angry at the war, at our own boys and that they actually did enlist and they do want to fight…" she sighed deeply and calmed herself down a bit "Am I a horrible person?" she asked her friends.
"Not a bit, dear." Ada put a hand on Hester's arm "I think we're all angry at the exact same things from time to time." she and Hester smiled at each other knowingly.
"War is horrible, Hester." Jo said "Not you or any of us." she grinned at her then and the other girls around her returned the grin.
"They will all be fine." Marion said again with a certain small smile of her own.
"Every single one of them." Vance added with her clasped hands and a timid grin on her own pale face. Hester could see a certain flicker in Vance's eyes, the one that spoke to her and to her only because of the fact that just a day before Selwyn came back to the front. Suddenly the atmosphere was broken by Fleur who opened her eyes suddenly and started hiccuping in that funny and darling way while gigling along the way as if she had just heard the funniest of all the jokes out there.
Suddenly the atmosphere was broken by Fleur who opened her eyes and started hiccuping in that funny and darling way while giggling along the way as if she had just heard the funniest of all the jokes out there. All the girls looked at one another and then at the little girl in Jo's arms and each of them started to laugh suddenly and light-heartedily without any effort at all. The echoes of their laughter were spreading right across the garden and straight into the ocean nearby, and Hester thought that maybe somehow it reached their boys too, every single one of them.