Читать книгу Every Man for Himself - Mark J. Hannon - Страница 23

CHAPTER 19

NORTH PARK, 1942

After Timothy was born in 1930, Eileen was exhausted. The three others were no bother; they practically took care of themselves they were so good; but little Timmy always seemed to need her. He was smaller than the rest, and she was always urging him to eat. She always ate everything, to be an example for the skinny, little man. She thought it would help get her energy back, but it didn’t. She tried Geritol, but that didn’t do any good, either. Everything she drank seemed to come right back out. Then, she started losing weight no matter what she ate, which the neighbors thought amazing for a woman who had given birth to four children.

Bingo, Ladies Sodality, Cub Scouts—she and the boy went to them all, and she always said a Rosary on Saturdays at St. Mark’s, to continue thanking God for the gift of her children. The most fun was bingo in the church hall. Timmy had started getting multiple cards and keeping track of each one of them. One time, Timmy was hollering, “Say Bingo, Mommy!”

Chatting with Rosalie Roaldi, she hadn’t paid attention, so she said, “Which one, which one, Timmy?”

He handed it to her and she shouted “Bingo!” even though she could barely make out the letters and numbers on their card. Ah, me, I must be getting old, she thought, but Joe, and now the older boys, do all the driving, so there’s no need to get glasses just yet.