His father had planted that tree on the day Paddy was born 80 years before. It was his tree. As a young lad he had confided all his secrets to the tree. He told the tree of his his hopes and dreams. The tree seemed to understand when he was feeling sad and would gently whisper comfortingly through its branches dropping leaves like tears. On happy days, when he danced a jig around it, the tree seemed to dance with him.
When Paddy fell in love for the first and only time the tree was the first to know.. Paddy could swear that the tree bowed like a courtier when first introduced to Coleen Riley, the girl he'd loved for more than 60 years. When they were courting they would sit under the tree during the short Irish summers making plans and imagining their lives together. Coleen was only fifteen when Paddy met her outside the Chapel where he attended Sunday mass. At seventeen he'd harbored thoughts of entering the priesthood as most good Catholic boys did at some time, if for no other reason than to please their parents and the local priest. The day he saw Coleen all thoughts of celibacy flew right out of his mind. He knew she was going to become his wife as she knew he was the only one for her. From that day on they were inseperable and had the blessings of both families.
They courted for three years until Coleen was eighteen and paddy twenty and were married by Father Joe in the local church with most of the village in attendance. Coleen looked like the angel she was, and Paddy was overwhelmed with love for her. What a mother she would make, and what beautiful children they would have together.
The Almighty must have had another plan because try as they might they never had a child. Medically there was no apparent reason but Coleen was never to be blessed with the joy of holding her own baby in her arms. Instead of becoming bitter, Coleen became a mother figure to all the village children and their home was always bursting at the seams.
But they were not to have the long and happy life they'd hoped for. Tuberculosis claimed the life of Coleen before she reached the age of forty The disease robbed her of her looks and vitality but could never rob her of her husbands love.
Paddy never remarried. He spent the next forty odd years in the little house he had shared with Coleen and took comfort from the visits of the village children and later on their children's children. Each day some village children would join him under the tree when the weather was fine and listen to him spin tales of the "little people". He became almost a legend in the small Irish community and was the local expert on Leprechauns. Later, when the children had gone home, he would sit alone under the branches of his old friend and talk about how much he missed Coleen. He and his friend were growing old together.
Paddy's children, as he came to think of them were hypnotized by his yarns.
He told them that the little people visited him at night and weren't too happy with the language young Tommy Kelly and Terry Gunn were using as they played in the wood, but they said they were enchanted by the singing of Eileen McCafferty as the strains drifted through the church window. The little people were also thinking that Mary Gorman should be nicer to her little brother and stop teasing him until he cried. In each trusting face he saw the child that he and Coleen so wanted but never had.
When the tree was struck by lightning, Paddy didn't do much story telling. He didn't do much of anything except visit lawyer Docherty about his will. Half to the Church and the rest to help Eileen McCafferty with her voice training in Dublin.
One afternoon as Paddy sat alone on the porch he had a visitor. He didn't get many visitors now and was surprised to see Eileen McCafferty coming up the path. She settled herself on the porch swing, looked at Paddy very earnestly and said "if I go to church every day and sing for the little poeple, not just on Sunday mind, but every day,do you think maybe they'd fix the tree?". "I asked my mither and she said I could go every morning before school".
How could he tell this innocent child that the little people were just the blethering of an old man who loved children? He reached out a knarled hand and touched her soft golden hair. Swallowing hard to ease the lump in his throat He spoke softly. "Eileen me love, the tree has gone to be with it's own, just as I'll be going soon to join my lovely Coleen. She's been waiting a long long time. How happy it would make this old man though to walk past the church and hear your own sweet voice".
For the next week the child rose early and faithfully went to the church to sing. The sound of her clear sweet voice so full of innocence made Paddy weep. Each day after school she'd come to the porch, look at the tree and say, "I think it's getting better Paddy".
On the eighth day, as Paddy dragged his weary bones to the porch to look at his poor dead friend he gasped in wonderment. The old tree was upright and alive. Paddy flew down the steps with an energy he hadn't felt in years. It was no illusion, his beloved friend was very much alive. Paddy laid his cheek against the trunk and cried joyous tears. The tree dropped some leaves in aknowledgement. The branches whispered endearments. Paddy McGuinnes would swear that he heard a familiar voice that day whispering through the branches "Take your time Paddy me darlin' I'll always be waiting".
