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The Light by Jackie Halliday

21/8/2015

 
In this story Jackie was reminiscing about the atmosphere in a particular room in the farmhouse where her father grew up. Then her writing led her to consider how his mother would have coped in a crisis.


The pale yellow light filtered in through the lead light stained glass windows giving the closed in L shaped veranda an olde worlde atmosphere reminiscent of circus sideshows, carousels and clowns. We loved the mystery of this strangely shaped, rarely used room, ancient, musty and exciting. It wrapped around the old farmhouse connecting the two bay windows. It was where my father grew up. I can imagine him playing here too, with his two brothers and older sister.

Was the veranda covered in then? I don’t know and it’s too late to ask.

Dad had an impressive scar down the shin of his right leg. We never saw it much as he always wore long trousers. If we asked he would show it to us. “Tell us the story,” we pleaded.

When he was a toddler he ventured into the pigpen. The old sow with her new litter was not pleased and prepared to attack. I imagine Granny leaping over the fence to rescue him but not before much damage had been done. I wonder what happened next. No Emergency Departments then. He must have bawled the place down. How did Granny repair the wound? Did she give him stitches? She wasn’t a nurse. How did she prevent infection?

I’ll never know.

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    Authors

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    Colleen Paisley
    Inge Rudolph
    Jackie Halliday
    Jim Peters
    Patricia Gross

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Writing Memoir
Defining Memoir
The Participatory Model
Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
​From Writing Course to Book Publication
Your Writing Space
​Writing on a Theme
Reviews of Memoir
Writers Stories
​
Events
​About
Testimonials
What People Say

Media
​Contact
Copyright © 2017 Deborah Shepard
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Writing Life >
      • Reviews & Interviews
    • Giving Yourself to Life
    • Her Life's Work
    • Translucence
    • Between The Lives
    • Reframing Women
    • Tributes
    • Personal Writings >
      • Lockdown Journal
      • Travel Journal
      • Elegy for a friend
      • Christchurch - Post Quakes
      • On a residency
      • Deborah’s Love Letter to the Women’s Bookshop
      • Deborah's Q & A With Unity Books
  • Writing Memoir
    • Defining Memoir
    • The Participatory Model
    • Tips on Writing and Posting a Story
    • The Value of a Writing Class
    • From writing course to book publication
    • Your Writing Space
    • Writing on a Theme >
      • Window
      • Surviving a Crisis
    • Reviews of Memoir
  • Writers' stories
    • Covid-19 Stories
    • Writing Guidelines
  • Events
  • About
    • Testimonials
    • Media
  • What People Say
  • Contact