Chapter 7

Poplar, London.

There was always something going on in London. A new couple going on a first date. A more established ones anniversary. Sadly, people dying. But also people coming into the world for the first time.

There was a joy in midwifery that never died. Bernadette had been told that by her aunt Evie when she had told her that she wanted to in to the profession which she and her mother had been in for so long.

And she found as she continued her career in that vein that it was nothing less than the truth.

Helping Concetta Warren give birth to her fourth child that day was a huge honour to her as delivering babies was always an honour to her.

And this one was no les beautiful than her and Lens first three.

Bernadette had been the one who had delivered all of them. She felt an immense pride in the fact the two of them thought she was the one who delivered babies best, even though she knew there were plenty of nurses at the hospital who were perfectly capable.

"She is a beautiful little girl."

And she really was. They were lucky.

There was nothing better than going home in the knowledge that she had helped bring in to the world a new life who was going to be loved and cherished by its family.

Nothing in the world could come close to that.

She did not need to ask to know that the two Warrens were going to spend their evening looking at their new little bundle of joy. They were going to look at the baby and wonder what they had ever done without her in their lives. The time before her was going to melt away and the two of them would be as in love with their daughter as they were with each other.

But as for herself she was going to have no such evening.

Her shift was at an end and she was going to go home and spend the rest of her mother's birthday with her and that was more than enough for Bernadette Newgarden.

X x x

On the way home Bernadette had not only picked up a VHS as well as some flowers for Julienne but she had also got a dinner for two as she had told her mother she was going to.

Her mother worked at the same hospital as she did still – the only difference was their shift pattern at the moment as her mother was currently on the night shift. Fortunately, her mother was on her rest days for now.

12 hours at a time was gruelling enough some times when there was glorious sunshine beaming through the windows.

She got back to the house by eight and was glad as she ever was to be home. She had been blessed in the fact she had never ever had to dread going home. As a teen, it was true she had had her moments. She had been caught smoking by her parents when she had been just fourteen years old and both her mother and her father had been furious.

But those moments between them had always been few and far.

She was grateful for that. She was grown and the memories which they had created had nearly always been for the good.

That thought made her father's death two years a lot easier than they would have been otherwise.

"Are you here mum?"

"In here," she heard Julienne's voice call to her from the living room.

She followed it to see her mother was on the sofa in her PJs.

"Happy birthday!" she said as she sat by her side, put down her bags and before she so much as took off her coat wrapped her arms about her.

"Thank you my dear Bernadette."

The two women laughed they embraced a smile on their faces. It only fell off Bernadette's face when she saw what was on the table. The cards from the funeral.

"Oh I was just having a reread," her mother said with a deep sigh. "I do miss him – your father was a very special man."

Bernadette nodded. She missed him too. More than she was able to say really.

"He was."

Bernadette could remember even as a child that her father would do all he could to make her mother's birthday special for her. It might just be a silly little joke present which only the two or the three of them would get or he might take her up to town for a meal or a show or they might just go to the cinema which remained their first love throughout their long marriage.

But they would always do something.

She squeezed the hand in hers. It went without saying how much she missed her father.

"I am going to go put dinner on. And then we are going to get on with this film night!" that was what her father would have done.

Julienne nodded and let her daughter go.

She was sorry she had let her self be caught.

She wanted this night to be a happy one.

Bernadette meanwhile had gone in to the kitchen and had her coat off at last.

What they needed now was food. It was a good cure for grief, always.

She swallowed and sighed before holding her head for just a moment.

Missing the only father she had ever had ever known had become part of her daily life. The pain was fresher some days than others.

But this was her mother's day and she was not going to let her grief get her down.

After all she had work to do on the vegetables.

While she worked however she could not help but think this was not the start of a downward spiral for her mother. Julienne had found it hard to bounce back from her husband death. Together, they had had a quiet romance; Bernadette did not think she had ever known how much her parents had relied on one another for their happiness.

Nor did she did think she was ever going to be able to forget the look on her mother's face when she had found out her father was dead. It was as if the whole world caved in.

Julienne had only ever had one husband and she had said she was only ever going to have one. While some people might see this as the grief talking, Bernadette had a feeling she was telling the utter truth. There was nothing wrong with and no shame in moving on, remarriage. But Julienne knew it was not for her.

Julienne had had one husband, Bernie had had one dad… only then did it spring into her mind that if she did want another dad then she might have one out there.

Charles had told her if she wanted to look for who he referred to as her 'real father' when he was gone, he had no problem with that and would even take comfort in the fact that she'd have a dad looking out for her. As far as she was concerned, he was the only real father she could ever have.

But she would be a liar if she said her biological parents did not ever cross her mind.

Who were there? Where were they?

"I am sorry if I upset you darling."

It was her mother at the door.

"You didn't. And you do not ever have to say sorry to me for missing dad."

Once more the two of them found they were seeking the comfort they could only find in each other.

"We are doing ok, aren't we?"

"We are doing good mum."

They were moving on with their lives and it was hard going but really were getting there.

"So tell me all about your day darling."

"Well I delivered the Warrens newest baby – it was a girl and she is completely healthy."

"That is wonderful news!"

"It is!" Shelagh smiled.

A new baby coming in to the world was always an occasion for joy in the Newgarden household. There had never been a day when one of them had delivered a healthy new baby when they had not come home with a smile on their face.

And it was even more so when the case was a family like the Warrens. They did not have a lot – they existed just above the poverty line, as so many still did in a city which was becoming ever more expensive to live in but the two of them loved one another and they loved their kids. They would always have enough – one way or another.

"And what about you? What did you do with your day off?"

"I had a lie in, I had a walk, I went to see what was going on at the cinema – did everything I wanted and went nowhere near a hospital."

And she still had roughly twenty four hours off before her next shift.

"Well, how does finishing up your birthday with your daughter and a bottle of wine sound?" Bernadette asked with a smile.

"That sounds like the best way to finish any day to me!" Julienne beamed. "Did you pick up the film?"

Bernadette nodded to the bag she had brought in which Julienne reached into and pulled out Dirty Dancing on VHS.

Yes, it was going to be a grand evening she thought with a smile.

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