Quaid Day Quotes

AS IT HAPPENED, CATHY’S CONFIRMATION DAY was a great success. By the time the hairdresser was finished with her, Cathy was more than pleased with the outcome. On the day she wore a pink two-piece suit decorated with tiny flowers around the edge of the lapel, a white high-collared blouse and white shoes. Archbishop McQuaid gave her the Sacrament of Confirmation, and to her relief Cathy was not even asked a question. The one-and-a-half-hour ceremony was followed by lunch in Bewley’s Café which, as always, was sumptuous. Then began the obligatory visiting of friends and relations. Transport for the day was provided by Ned Brady, a local baker. Ned had an Austin Cambridge and supplied the car, himself as driver and the petrol for five pounds. By

drop a second suitcase by the garage door. Hawk eyes it. “We’re not leaving for a month, just three days.” Pointing to the larger one, I explain, “Babies require a lot of stuff. You never know what she might need.” “She eats, sleeps, and shits. There’s not much to it.” “Says the man who hasn’t lifted a finger to take care of her. There’s a lot more to Rivi than that.

I wanted to brush my teeth and… stuff.” “Stuff?” She shrugs. “I hadn’t shaved in days.” “Sweetheart, your legs could look like a woolly mammoth and I wouldn’t care.” Her chest rises and falls. “You like it when I call you that, don’t you?” I wink. “Sweetheart. Not woolly mammoth.” She giggles and walks toward me.

Do you know how scared I was in the car today? I was trapped, not able to get out of the seatbelt. For a minute I couldn’t get to her. And I couldn’t breathe. Not because I was hurt, but because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing her. I’d already lost you and if I lost her my life would have been over. And it only reinforced what I already knew; that I didn’t want to live another day without you. Both of you.

But between then and now, I had met McQuaid. I had lived with him and learned that sustainable love doesn’t grow out of superheated physical passion, but out of simply holding hands and holding on, day in and day out. I’d learned that “good” really is enough, not because you’re settling for something less, but because “fantastic” and “incredible” burn you out emotionally, just as life in the fast lane bums you out physically.