A Proper Good Story

A Proper Good Story

Vanessa Walsh Silvester

Copyright © 2014 by Vanessa Walsh Silvester.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

First Ebook Edition: March 2014

Smashwords Edition

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Contents

About A Proper Good Story

Dedication

Part One: John and Caroline

Part Two: Muriel

Part Three: Maggie

Part Four: Terry

Part Five: Harold and Emily

Part Six: Lucinda

About A Proper Good Story

The timeless saying that life was not meant to be easy pretty much describes what my story is all about, that saying goes hand in hand with most people’s journey through life.

The main character in this story is a woman named Lucinda Hannaford who was strong enough to take complete charge of her eventual destiny. The story begins when she was a little girl, she was born with a seed of strength in her soul and throughout her life and with help from others she was able to slowly allow that seed to mature and grow and help her to triumph.

Lucinda was a lucky child materialistically as her parents were very wealthy. They were never in love with each other either before or after their marriage and they never knew how to love their daughter.

The story follows the lives of several generations of people in Lucinda’s own family as well as people from other families that became woven into the fabric of her life. These people provided her with the loving arms she yearned for and needed and saved her from what would have been a sad and lonely childhood.

All the characters in my story found themselves in situations that required them to make decisions in their lives and with every change of direction meant they had an altered path they needed to follow.

Lucinda Hannaford was brave enough to take control of her own life. Many would not agree with the choices she made, some would say she was dishonest or disloyal, but by doing it her way, she was able to make her life a success and help others out along the way.

Everyone’s life has sadness, passions, loves, struggles and deaths, all these emotions are lessons that no person can avoid. My journey began from the moment I took my first breath, as did yours and it was the same for Lucinda Hannaford.

I hope that by you reading my book you may find something familiar in my characters. Maybe help yourself make sense of issues in your own life or at least enable you to recognise weaknesses that you have managed to conquer thus turning them into strengths.

Vanessa Walsh Silvester

Dedication

I would like to dedicate the first story I have ever been brave enough to share to the World to my High School English teacher Mr Brady (Toowoomba State High School 1978-1982). He always encouraged me to let my imagination flow on to paper and to never be embarrassed to admit that I loved to write. He was a wonderful mentor and he never tired of reading my stories.

I would also like to thank my husband Neil who always has understood my need to escape into my stories. He has given me the time and the space to work and has helped me to follow my dream.

Vanessa Walsh Silvester

Part One

John and Caroline

When John Atherton first laid eyes on ‘Caroline Fields’ he knew that one day she would be his wife. She was standing outside the picture theatre chatting and giggling with a group of her friends. ‘Caroline’ stood out to John, like she was the only person on the footpath. John was eighteen years old at the time and he guessed that ‘Caroline’ was around sixteen years of age. John never considered himself to be an ugly chap, nor would have considered himself to be overly handsome. But he felt his appearance was pleasant enough. John now had decided his new life mission was to find out that pretty girls name and make her fall in love with him.

John continued to admire this girl from afar, as he followed her and her friends into the picture theatre that day. John did not even bother to look at the picture screen, instead he spent the entire afternoon staring at the back of her head. She had beautiful blonde hair, tied up in a ponytail with a pretty pink ribbon. After the picture, John decided to follow the girls home, to find out where ‘Caroline’ lived, fortunately it was only a few blocks from his own house. It would have been very easy for John to just knock on her door and ask her out for a date, but he was way too shy for that. So over the next few weeks after work, he would just keep walking past her house, hoping that she would happen to come outside. John’s plan was that if they ever happened to bump into each other, he would strike up some witty conversation with her. Who was he kidding? If ‘Caroline’ did happen to come out of her door, during one of his frequent walk bys, he would pass out from nerves before a single word could ever come out of his mouth.

John Atherton was living in Manchester with his Grandmother, Granny Atherton. His parents Peggy and Bertie were living a ‘hippy’ type existence even before the term or lifestyle became fashionable. They lived on a farm about thirty minutes outside of the city. They were living a self-sufficient existence, no electricity or gas, just living off the land that the good Lord had created. They sold their vegetables in the local Markets, and that was their only source of monetary income.

John always wanted to work with his hands, not with the soil and much to the disgust of his parents, their only child moved to the city to live with his paternal Grandmother. He started his mechanics as an apprentice, as he had always been fascinated with machinery. He felt that a machine could always be fixed. If any of the parts were cracked or broken, they could simply be replaced or repaired and the engine would work again. Nothing to complex, just one part, added to another part and all these parts working in together to achieve the common goal of success. John’s Granny Atherton loved that her only grandson had moved back to Manchester to live with her. The old woman could never understand why Bertie and Peggy wanted to live in the country. She loved living in town, surrounded by people. She lived ten minutes’ walk from the high street markets, with food right there on the shelves ready to be purchased. She felt it was very silly for people to be digging around in the dirt for their vegetables. Granny Atherton was not a wealthy woman, but could afford to live very comfortably, therefore she was ever so happy to spoil young John with both material things and with lots of her love. Granny knew that her John had something on his mind that was worrying him. She could read him like a book. She told John that if that Mr Jones at the garage was giving him a hard time at work, she would go right down there herself first thing in the morning and give him a ‘good earful’. John assured his Granny that it wasn’t work that was making him moody. He went on to say that his boss Mr Jones was a tough but fair man and that she did not need to be getting on her ‘high horse’ and causing trouble at his place of work. John knew he had been moody lately and he had been having trouble sleeping. He wondered whether he could confide in his Gran, that he was indeed madly in love with a blonde haired girl whose name he had not yet discovered. His Granny had been young once and she once had been a girl, so maybe, she would understand?

Caroline Fields was in her final year of high school and like every other girl her age she dreamt of falling in love with her Prince Charming and riding off into the sunset. Caroline was much more realistic than that. She had a ‘level’ head of her shoulders and was a ‘decent girl’ from a working class background. Caroline was good with anything to do with handicrafts, she loved doing her tapestry and needlepoint and she could draft, cut and sew a frock from scratch just by looking at a picture in a magazine. After she finished high school she wanted to get a job as a seamstress, a job that would suit her well until she got married and also offer her a means of income, once the babies started to come along later.

Caroline had never had a boyfriend as her parents had always been very strict with her about such things. But there was one lad that had taken her fancy. She’d found out his name through a friend, of a friend, of a friend. The boy’s name was John