A Mother’s Spirit. Anne Bennett
knowing it was useless, and then Gloria burst away from Planchard, who was trying to prevent her and her mother going too close. But they had seen enough. Gloria let out an almost primeval howl and sank to her knees, and Norah fell unconscious to the floor.
Joe felt numb with shock, but his first duty was to his wife and then his mother-in-law. He lifted Gloria into his arms and held her shivering form as he said to Planchard, ‘Can you manage to get your mistress upstairs?’
‘I’ll see to her, sir,’ Planchard said. ‘And shall I phone the police after I have phoned the doctor?’
‘Police?’ Joe repeated. ‘I hadn’t thought of the police but I suppose they need to be informed, so if you would … And anyone else you think we might need to call. I can’t seem to be able to think straight at the moment.’
Planchard looked at Joe’s drawn, ashen face. ‘Don’t worry, sir. Leave that side of things to me.’
The servants, many in tears, were clustered in horrified confusion in the hall, unsure what to do. When Mary stepped forward to help Joe with Gloria he waved her away. ‘I will manage her,’ he said. ‘But your mistress might need your attention.’
Gloria leaned against Joe as he carried her up the stairs. Laying her gently on the bed, he said, ‘Planchard is calling the doctor, darling. I’m sure he will be able to give you something to ease you.’
‘What good will the doctor do me, Joe?’ Gloria asked sadly. ‘He cannot bring Daddy back.’
Joe sat down on the bed and tenderly stroked Gloria’s hair away from her forehead. ‘I really do understand how distraught and devastated you are feeling at the moment.’
‘I will never see him again,’ Gloria said, covering her face with her hands. ‘I’m not sure I can bear it.’
Joe put his arms tight around her and murmured into her hair, ‘You will, my dearest, darling girl. It will take time, but I will be by your side always, helping you in any way I can.’
‘Oh, Joe!’ Gloria cried, and the tears came then, not the quiet, controlled weeping she had already done, but like an outpouring of her very soul. The sound of Gloria’s sobs rasping in her throat cut Joe to the quick, and he held her shuddering body in his arms.
He remembered the doctor expressing surprise and concern that his mother hadn’t cried when his father had dropped dead of a heart attack. Whether tears would have helped a woman like his mother he wasn’t sure, but in Gloria he saw them as a good sign, and so he didn’t urge her to stop crying, but just held her trembling body close, rocking her slightly and feeling her tears dampen his jacket.
Eventually, when she was calmer, he laid her head down on the pillow. Her face, he noticed, was as white as lint and her eyes looked larger than ever and puffed up from the tears.
‘Why did he do it, Joe?’ she asked. When Joe shook his head helplessly she added, ‘It’s something to do with those blessed shares, isn’t it?’
‘Quite possibly,’ Joe said. ‘But we might know more later. Planchard is informing the police, but you needn’t concern yourself with any of that. To sleep would be the best thing for you.’
Gloria said nothing. She knew that the only way sleep would help her was if she were to wake up afterwards and find the whole thing had been some horrible nightmare.
‘I must find out what is happening,’ Joe said. ‘I will send Tilly to sit with you.’
Downstairs he found Planchard waiting for him with the evening paper in his hand. ‘The master was holding this when he came in,’ he said, handing it to Joe. ‘Look at the Stop Press, sir.’
There in the hall, Joe learned what had caused his father-in-law to take his own life. He read of the Wall Street Crash, which had begun on a day the paper called Black Tuesday. Many people faced ruination because of it, and some men, seeing this, found their hearts couldn’t take it and they had died there on the Exchange floor.
‘If it is as bad as that, maybe in the end Brian’s heart might have given out too,’ Joe said. ‘That would have been tragedy enough, but doing it this way – that’s so … well almost unbelievable. He is the very last man that I could imagine doing such a thing.’
The doctor, who had known the Brannigan family for years, was terribly shocked and upset by the news that Brian had felt driven to kill himself after the news he had heard about his shares. He went into the study first, looked down on the body of the fine man he had known Brian to be, and felt the pity of it all wash over him.
Brian had no need of his services now and he followed Joe up the stairs to see how the man’s wife and daughter were coping.
‘I am worried about the mental state of both your wife and your mother-in-law,’ he told Joe, after examining them both. ‘I have given them each a strong sedative for now. At least they will sleep tonight and I will be back in the morning.’
‘The police are on their way,’ Joe said.
‘Well, I would say neither woman could help them in what is so obviously a terrible and tragic accident,’ the doctor said. ‘It could be very detrimental for them to be disturbed tonight.’
‘I’ll see they are not,’ Joe said firmly. ‘And I will make that clear to the police.’
In the end, he didn’t have to because the police saw straight away that Brian’s death was a suicide and they praised Joe for having the foresight to leave everything as it was until they arrived. Once the police left, Planchard phoned the undertakers to take the body away.
‘Would you like me to phone Bert too, sir?’ he asked. ‘I don’t think news like this can wait until the morning.’
‘No, you’re right,’ Joe said, ‘and he was worried enough when I told him that Brian had gone out this morning without a word to anyone. He was all for me leaving a little earlier so that I could look for him before true darkness really descended.’
Over the next few days, there was so much to do that Joe didn’t know whether he was coming or going. Everyone now knew what had happened, and not just in the Brannigan household either, for it was widely reported in the newspapers. An estimated thirty billion dollars had been lost in the Crash, and Joe felt as helpless as though he were on the edge of a precipice and about to fall into the dark void beyond.
Everything Joe had to do seemed to take so long and there were only so many hours in the day. He had thought arranging the funeral would at least be straightforward. However, when he went up to the presbytery to make arrangements with the priest, he told Joe that Brian should not be buried in consecrated ground because he had taken his own life.
Joe glared at him for a moment before saying, ‘And exactly who would that punish?’
‘It’s the law of the Christian Church, Joe.’
‘You can’t put the word Christian to a law like that, which serves only to shame and stigmatise the people left behind,’ Joe snapped. ‘They are already coping with the fact that their loved one is dead, and by his own hand. Have you the least idea what that feels like?’
‘But, Joe—’
‘There isn’t a but here, Father,’ Joe said. ‘Brian has donated enough money to this church over the years and, added to that, his plot where his father is buried, and where Norah will lie eventually, is bought and paid for.’
‘Money and even ownership of a plot doesn’t come into this, Joe. It’s a question of doing what is right.’
‘You will be doing something badly wrong if you refuse to bury Brian’s body in the churchyard,’ Joe said. ‘The doctor said the balance of Norah’s mind is precarious.’
The priest shook his head. ‘Obviously I feel immensely sorry for Norah, for all of you.’
‘Oh, good,’ Joe said sarcastically. ‘That will make all the difference. Look,