Page 47 of A Part of Me and You
The sound of their laughter today and the way Juliette glanced across to her daughter with such brightness and light and life in her eyes was something I wished I could have caught on camera, but it will be forever instilled now in Rosie’s memory which has filled me up a little inside. Juliette may be cursed with a terminal illness that will eventually take her away from here, but today she was alive and she was loving every minute of it.
My living room is filled up too with the smell of a vanilla candle burning, a gift today from Juliette after our two hours of fun on the beach. We were soaked through, we were exhausted, we were starving but we were bursting with laughter, smiles and the great joy of the outdoors.
‘This good old scent of vanilla, as bland and boring as its reputation may be, is a great aroma for bringing joy and relaxation,’ Juliette said when she gave the candle to me as we walked through the village. ‘You looked right at home there today with those horses and both you and Sarah made me feel so at ease. I loved it. You need to do things like that to relax you more Shelley and feel the joy that life can still bring you. Lily would want that and so would your mother.’
She had unexpectedly popped into the little gift shop which is just two doors down fromLily Lovesand as Rosie and I waited outside, we were sure she had spotted some tacky souvenir like one of those back scratchers covered in shamrocks, or a tea towel with an Irish blessing – the sort of things that don most of the windows in those shops all down the coastline.
‘I bet she gets a Guinness t-shirt for Dan,’ says Rosie as we stood there waiting. ‘Or rugby jerseys for Aunty Helen’s boys. She said she would bring everyone back something that is unmistakeably Irish so goodness knows what she’s up to. I wouldn’t be surprised if she came out with a real leprechaun.’
But we were very wrong as when Juliette emerged from the shop only moments later, she handed me a little paper bag with the candle inside and a full explanation as to why she chose it.
‘You are very kind,’ I told her. ‘But you don’t need to be giving me gifts, you really don’t. It’s such a pleasure to be around you two and I mean it when I say it. Today was good for me too. It really was.’
‘I bet it was nice to spend time with Sarah?’ Juliette said to me and I smiled.
‘It was like the good old days again,’ I told her. ‘Well, you know what I mean. Almost like the good old days when it was just me and her sometimes and we’d do stuff together and laugh about it for days. I’ve missed that a lot. I’m realizing now just how much I’ve missed having friends.’
Now, as I lie here in my fluffy robe, feeling clean after my shower and at peace in the quiet of the evening, I promise myself to make sure that Sarah and I meet up again soon. I believe I have turned a corner today and when the phone rings and I hear Matt’s voice, I light up even more. I have so much to tell him which makes a big change from my usual downbeat tales of evenings spent alone in the house with nothing and no one but our dog for company and the doom and gloom and sorrow of white empty walls.
‘You should have seen her face, Matt. Honestly it would have taken a tear from a stone,’ I tell him when I’m in mid-flow about Rosie today. ‘The pride when she saw her mum get up and face her fears to join her horse-riding. I could cry even thinking about it.’
Matt, as I predicted, is full of questions about my newfound friends.
‘So, these people, this mum and daughter, they’re from England did you say?’
‘Yes, they’re over for a week on a last-minute holiday. They’re staying in the cottage by the pier. You know the one with the yellow door? It’s really cute and—’
I haven’t told him the link to Skipper yet. I’m saving that one for after I tell him all about our adventures today and yesterday.
‘Yeah I know the one,’ he says. ‘It’s normally booked up months in advance, though? That was a coup to get somewhere so nice to stay last minute.’
‘I know, it’s perfect.’
‘And you met them when they came into the shop then on Saturday?’ he continues. ‘How the hell did you become friends? You said you can’t do anything more than small talk with strangers? I’ve seen you in action, Shell. You freeze up.’
My husband should work for the FBI. So many questions …
‘I know, I know but this was different,’ I explain to him. ‘Well, as weird as it may sound I kind of got the feeling that something special was about to happen when Juliette came into the shop and bought a blue dress. Your mum had told me that morning to look out for someone associated with the colour blue.’
‘Oh, here we go,’ says Matt with a laugh. He is very much on my dad’s side of the fence when it comes to his mother’s predictions and interpretations.
‘Anyhow, that’s neither here nor there, Mr Cynical,’ I tell him. ‘It was really when I came across Rosie, her daughter, on the beach that evening that our paths properly crossed. She was so upset and I stopped to try and help her and that’s when she told me about her mum being sick and how worried she was, and I related to her. I really felt her pain, Matt. It was only two days ago yet it feels like so much has happened and so much has changed already, in the best possible way.’
‘That’s beautiful, babe, I am so thrilled for you,’ he says. ‘And you went out for lunch with them?Outfor lunch? Seriously?’
‘Yes, I did,’ I tell him, feeling really proud of myself right now. ‘We just went down to the Beach House, hardly the Ritz, but still.’
‘And how was it? Was it easier than you thought? I actually can’t believe this, Shelley. I really want to go and give that woman a medal, what did you say her name was?’
‘Juliette,’ I say to him for the third time. He never was great with names. ‘As in Romeo and Juliet?’
‘Oh.’
‘I did feel a panic attack coming on when she suggested it,’ I continue, ‘and I tried to back out a few times, especially when we got there and I felt everyone staring but Juliette made me come back and eat dessert and we had a glass of bubbly, then went over to her cottage and Rosie, who loves Merlin by the way, did my makeup and honestly Matt, it is just so sad to think of what they have ahead of them. I only wish I could help them more.’
Matt takes a moment to let all of this sink in.
‘And then horse-riding today?’ he says. ‘With Sarah. That’s pretty big of you to arrange all that for them. I can’t believe this. I’ve been trying to get you to hook up with Sarah for months and months now. How is she?’
