What Dreams are Made of

By Edna McCabe

Part 8 - Martin Leaves for the Congo

When Martin Junior was jut a year, there was talk of the army sending troops overseas to join the United Nation's forces. Martin was one of the first to be actually asked to go. As joining the UN forces was voluntary, he discussed the idea with the family first. At this stage I thought the children would be good company and I knew the adventure would appealed to Martin. I convinced myself that a six-months absence would be nothing. (How wrong I was!)

Anyway, I encouraged him to go and I could see he was pleased. So after all the hugs, tears, and farewells, suddenly he was gone. So once again we were back to our long letters flying to and fro. The children all got their own letters and they wrote saying what gifts they wanted their dad to bring them.

Very soon this became a time a time of long nights and a lonely bed. Up to this point we had worked as a team, now I felt so responsible for the children. It was like being on a team all on my own. When all the children went to bed I went too; and I didn't come down again, no matter who knocked at the door, until the next morning. It was at this time that I acquired the habit of reading in bed. I used to hear sounds at night and in particular a strange thumping sound which neither Martin nor I had ever been able to identify until one summer's evening, years later, when we were sitting in the yard. A dog ran across a loose shore and we heard the sound. We looked at one another and said together, "That's the thump.

Another thing that bothered me when Martin was away was his hen run. When the hens flew out of the run we all ran after them, thinking we should save them from the dogs. I learned later that we should have left them alone because they would have flown back again at night. Then there was the problem of cleaning the hen run, something Martin did regularly. However, one go at that work finished me. I was no country girl! When Martin came home he had a good laugh about all our problems with the hens; but in due course he got rid of them, as they weren't worth the bother.

During this time my mother went on one of her many visits to "Auntie Grace" in Dublin. She wasn't feeling well but these visits always did her good. However this time she took a bad turn and ended up seriously ill in hospital. Joe, Marie and Grace sent word. I remember getting all five children ready, packing, and ringing for a taxi. The taxi broke down half way but luckily a young man (Terry Hynes) came to the rescue and we made the train in time. It was a sad journey. The ambulance was at Grace's house when we arrived and I went with my mother to hospital. She kept talking about Martin Jnr during the journey. I told her she'd see him soon, but sadly this was not to be, because after an operation that week, she passed peacefully away due to a cancerous tumour.

Her doctor here in Athlone told me she must have had symptoms but had never told anyone. So here I was again wishing for Martin to take over and work it all out for me. I struggled through the funeral arrangements. We had to contact my brother Matt who couldn't come from England. The grave (my dad's) was in Matt's name and he had to give all the details, plus his permission to have it opened. It was all so sad. The only good thing was that my mother died in Dublin where she had wished to be buried with my dad. Had she died in Athlone, I would have had to make all the funeral arrangements.

This was to be the worst year of my life but Martin's letters came regularly and helped to cheer me up. They often included lovely photos of the Congo and smiling Congolese children. One of these photo showed Martin in a tent with a photograph of Martin junior hanging beside him. He told us of the good times he was having and how he had bought presents for everyone; including a jeep like the one Martin junior had asked for. It was very many years later that Martin junior found out that the same jeep had been hidden in a neighbour's house all the time, as it would have been impossible to buy something like that in the Congo. Despite his happy times Martin was counting the days until he would be home again.

Christmas was on the way and my sister Grace insisted that we all spend it in Dublin with her, Toby, Ann and Barry. (A few years later Grace had another girl called Edna who named after me.) Our Christmas tree stood all on its own as we packed and once again set off for Dublin.

That was a wonderful Christmas and we all relaxed though of course we missed Martin, particularly as he loved Christmas himself and he had a great way of making it exciting for everyone. In his absence he arranged for Santa to call to our door and for a photographer to take a Christmas photograph of us all.

He was the sort of dad who put up the decorations and he loved helping the children to dress the tree and to make a mess of icing the Christmas cake. No one ever saw an iced cake like ours as Martin junior used to put his favourite car on top of it.

Before we went to Dublin the army arranged to have a tape sent out to the Congo from all the wives and children. Everyone, even the children, sent a message and from me they played Frank Sinatra singing "Strangers in the Night". So appropriate for us - I always shed a silent tear when I'd hear it. In the Congo they too celebrated the 25th but for the troops there was no place like home.

When we all came back from Dublin the first thing the children saw was the lonely Christmas tree in the corner with not a single decoration on it. Grace and Valerie lost no time in finding the box of decorations and so at New Year we all had another Christmas. Then came the time for the soldiers return. Everyone was getting ready when Martin wrote to say he had been asked to stay on a little longer to get things ready for the next contingent. I was in a state of shock but his letter said it was important for him and he'd explain everything later. So there I was again, back to square one. I remember thinking "This is not the way it's meant to be, we are supposed to be together forever!!"

Still, I went along with it reminding myself of all those meetings and partings all those years ago. Besides, Martin didn't do anything without a good reason. But worse was to come. War broke out in the Congo and all the Irish soldiers were involved. Eleven Irish soldiers were captured and killed in the Niemba ambush and only one body was never recovered. Martin's company were taken prisoners and at one stage the men were lined up to be shot. Miraculously but they were given a last minute reprieve. We were kept up to date with what was happening by the army and of course by radio and the newspaper reports. The son of an officer who was also in the Congo, Leo Quinlan, called to me regularly as his family had more direct news than ours. I had the job of passing on what I heard to neighbours whose husbands were with Martin.

The Red Cross brought us censored letters from the men. Though Martin's letter was short it was wonderful just to see his familiar scrawl. Auntie Grace heard the whole company had been wiped out; so she packed her bag and arrived at 47 thinking she'd be helping out at the funeral. When she arrived I had locked myself out and I'll always remember her climbing up a ladder to get in the back window! Then after some weeks we heard that all the men were safe. Auntie Grace returned to Dublin and then we all set off for Dublin again for another brief stay.

Unfortunately, Mary got sick during this visit and all I wanted to do was to get her back to Athlone, where she could be seen by our own doctor. Grace agreed with me saying there was the danger that Mary would be sent to the Fever Hospital in Dublin. Poor, gentle Mary would have pined away. The doctor in Athlone told me Mary had jaundice and that she would have to be kept isolated and that her clothes, towels, blankets, sheets etc held to be kept separate. She got very thin and as she recovered there were further complications as she got the mumps, the measles and the 'flu; I thought I'd lose her.

All Mary wanted was "Martin"; she never called her father Daddy. And here was I wondering why in heaven's name he ever went to the Congo. Then came the news we had all been waiting for, the men were coming home. The joy and excitement was nearly too much. I got a taxi and off we went to the Barracks to meet them. I had to get Mary out of bed and wrap her up well for the occasion. There he was waiting, with three cases. He had lost two stone in weight because of the heat and the fact that a dog that was thought to have rabies had bitten him. It seems he was looking at some pups when the mother bit him; he was immediately put on a series of injections. At this joyous time such adventures were all behind him.

The children crowded around him in the barracks and I had to stand back, but over their heads our eyes met with the same love that had never wavered. Just one look was all it took.

He got a shock when he saw Mary. He actually thought she was Tina's friend from next door. He wasn't long getting her back to her old self. Every day for weeks he make his special recipe for her, egg flip and whiskey. She started singing in bed and I'm sure it was the whiskey! Anyway she soon got better. All went well.

Oh the presents he brought home. He had brought three cases of treasures home with him, many of them were hand-made objects from the Congo. Others he had bought at airport stops on the way home. He always said he wanted to keep one of his cases that had bullet holes in it; however over the years it got dumped. Everyone got what he or she asked for. Martin junior got his jeep, which was sneaked into the house the night before; and the girls got talking dolls, slippers, wigs, watches, and other toys. And of course I got a present of jewellery. There was also a present for each member of his family in Mullingar and Dublin.

I remember Mary and Tina putting on their wigs and new slippers and cycling up and down the road. Years later I was asked, "How could you let us do that?" But in those days children were so innocent and as there was no TV they found ways of amusing themselves. They were happy and their dad used to say, "Let them off."

And so it wasn't until that night in bed that the two of us got to really talk. He told me that up to the time of the trouble they had all enjoyed the Congo, as they managed to see the country and visit some local families. He thought it was a great country and a wonderful place to live if only there had been peace there. His worst moment was when they were all lined up to be shot. He thought of us all here and said a silent prayer. Then suddenly they were all freed.

For now he was so happy to be back with us and he was never going again. Then he told me his real reason for wanting to go in the first place. The adventure certainly appealed to him, but mostly he thought about the extra money he could earn to get the necessities of life that he thought we badly needed. I was annoyed because I would never put a price on the love he had for us all, and certainly not on his life. Yet he was fed up always seeing me at the sink with the washboard, cleaning the house with a dustpan and brush, baking by hand, struggling to get uniforms for school, scouts, guides, even with all the help I was getting from him. He saw getting more money as a way out. He said, "Better than throwing a plate through the window." He remembered. What could I say? I had been quite happy with Martin and the children and I certainly knew he had given his all to us. What happened next was a whirl of activity.

First of all the new washing machine arrived. It was one of the first kinds with a wringer. It was super only I didn't get to use it for a week. Grace and Martin himself washed everything in the house, even dusters. Grace caught her hand in it one day, so we had to be careful after that. Then the range was taken out and a lovely new fireplace arrived. No more baking on the range, so I had to have a new gas cooker. I was nervous of the gas so that got changed for an electric cooker. Then I got all the gadgets - an iron, a toaster, food mixer, electric kettle. There was no end to it all. Then to make the house more comfortable we had a wall knocked down, so instead of one long room we now had a living room and kitchen. There was even a new sink. And last, but not least, we got a new bed. The old one had a hole in the middle from all the rolling over we did! And one side (mine) was gone down from the weight of all the pregnancies! Later on we got a fridge although Martin's homemade one outside had certainly done the job.

It was a very exciting time and there was no stopping Martin. We then got a dryer and carpets for the bedrooms and living room. We were getting there. He didn't go away again, but we did other things in the next five years. We had always wanted to go to Lourdes and the Holy Land. Well, we got to Lourdes twice which was wonderful. Jerusalem was yet to come. Also the family all got to go on the Scout Camps.