A Simple Life

By Lily E Dineen

Sometimes seeing the beauty and elegance in everyday life is the very thing that creates a life, a story.

May Darcy met a boy one summer who changed her life completely and simply. He fell in love with her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Aug 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781528928175

Lily E Dineen

Lily grew up in the countryside of South Cork, Ireland. Her family has a small dairy farm where she spent most of her summers working on, with them. In primary school she was diagnosed with dyslexia and Irlen syndrome. Her parents took it upon themselves to read with her every night and during the summer days. They organised remedial teaching, invested in a number of Irlen glasses and bought her a laptop to help improve her reading and writing skills. At 18 years of age, she moved to Dublin City to attend Trinity College Dublin. She trained to be a general nurse in St James’s Hospital and now works there as a staff nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Book preview

About the Author

Lily grew up in the countryside of South Cork, Ireland. Her family has a small dairy farm where she spent most of her summers working on, with them. In primary school she was diagnosed with dyslexia and Irlen syndrome. Her parents took it upon themselves to read with her every night and during the summer days. They organised remedial teaching, invested in a number of Irlen glasses and bought her a laptop to help improve her reading and writing skills.

At 18 years of age, she moved to Dublin City to attend Trinity College Dublin. She trained to be a general nurse in St James’s Hospital and now works there as a staff nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dedication

For Mum and Dad.

You taught me how to read and encouraged me to write.

Copyright Information ©

Lily E Dineen 2022

The right of Lily E Dineen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528928083 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528928175 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Chapter One

The glowing fire crackled away within the black slate fireplace as the low hum of folk pottered around in the parlour of the cottage. It was a bit of a solemn atmosphere, most were garbed in the mourning colour of black.

Here, will you have a cup of tea, Mam? Davie Rivers held forward a cup of nice milky tea. The old woman waved her hand in dismissal.

Mam, why don’t lie down for a bit? Rosie held a hand out for her mother to take. May Rivers stood up slowly; she was still wearing her coat and hat. She made her way out of the small room and away from the crowd of sympathising friends and family. She hobbled along into the bedroom and shut the door.

The chatter dulled away into the background. May made her way to the bed and settled near her bedside locker. A pretty little picture was framed and sitting there next to the bed.

The photograph was a black-and-white one, of a young couple on their wedding day. May ran her fingers over the photo of the groom. He was a handsome man with deep eyes and dark, shaggy hair. He had a beautiful smile; bright and kind.

It was the summer of 1985 that May Darcy met Jeremiah Rivers for the first time. She was eighteen that year; he was twenty-five.

Freddie Mercury’s Mr Bad Guy was bopping away out of the car radio of her father’s Mercedes 200 as they zoomed down the country roads. Mrs Darcy was wearing bright red lipstick with a silk red scarf around her head as she sat in the front passenger seat. She was a stylish housewife, dedicated to baking and baking well. Mr Darcy was in the driver’s seat, looking smart in his white shirt and tie. May thought the world of her father; he was a caring man and a caring doctor.

May rolled down the back seat window and stuck her head out. The wind whipped and blew around her long, bushy hair. The sun was high, dazzling in the clear blue sky.

What’s wrong with Nana, Dad?

She’s old, May. She’s got cancer. I don’t know why she didn’t tell us sooner.

Don’t agitate yourself about it, John. You know your mother, she wouldn’t tell anyone that time she broke her wrist either.

The little yellow car buzzed through small towns and villages as the family travelled down towards the south, away from their red-bricked house in the capital.

May had only ever seen her grandmother for a few hours every year. They travelled down, a few days before Christmas, stayed for the night then journeyed back the next day. May’s father had moved to Dublin when he married her mother to allow her to stay close to her own parents. Mr Darcy often wrote to his mother (every week) and visited her alone sometimes, even though he thoroughly disliked travelling.

The car flew past the old red house that lay on the outskirts