Page 39 - The Letter By Ann Newhouse

with anticipation for Mr. Harris to reveal the contents. Studying his face, I tried to make out if it contained good or bad news.
‘Well, well! This is a surprise’, he started, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Doyle’s great grandson is on his way to visit them!’
‘But surely he must know they no longer live in the cottage’, I cried, ‘you told me they emigrated five years ago!’
‘That’s correct’, Mr. Harris handed me the letter, ‘this will explain the confusion’
Dear Grandpa, Grandma,
I wish to find my father. Firstly, I want to say I hope you don’t mind my calling you grandpa and grandma. I know you know of me, my mother told me the whole story on her deathbed.
I looked at Mr. Harris confused.
‘The story gets very complicated’, he started, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Doyle only had one child, a daughter, she was their pride and joy. She married a lovely local man and they had a couple of children, the perfect little family by all accounts.
He lowered his voice then, ‘but there was a scandal involving their grandson, when he was 18 he had gotten his 16-year-old girlfriend pregnant’.
‘As you can imagine’ he continued, ‘what a scandal like that would have caused in a small village, especially when the parents of the young girl were of the clergy!’
He paused, looking around to make sure no one had heard.
‘But there was further heartache for the Doyle family when their only daughter and her husband died in a tragic car crash. They had just found out about the pregnant girlfriend when it happened’.