Juvenile Fiction
Beth Boudreau

Catherine's Christmas

Catherine’s Christmas
Catherine was eight years old and had loved dolls for as long as she could remember. Her mother, “Mumma”, as Catherine called her, had given her a doll for her last birthday because she said Catherine was the only one of her girls who would look after it. Mumma would make an outfit for her doll every time she had scraps left over from her sewing.
The cloth doll was stuffed with straw, had a painted face and yarn for hair. Catherine loved her doll dearly. Her name was Mary. Every day after school, she rocked Mary, dressed her in a new outfit, and talked to Mary as if she was really able to understand everything she told her.
Catherine’s sisters, especially Margaret, told her she was silly to play with an old doll so much. But Catherine never listened to them. She loved Mary and took very good care of her.
Catherine knew that Pappa, her father, could not afford to buy extra things, like dolls, for his family. Seven girls and one boy were so many mouths to feed. “They were lucky to have enough food on the table!” Pappa always said. She also knew how blessed her family was that Pappa had a job at the grocery store. Mumma always said that.
Pappa was the best meat cutter in the whole Inverness area. “If you want a good cut of meat, go to see Little Neil at MacLellan’s Store.” She had heard many people say that around the town of Inverness where she lived. He was called ‘Little Neil’ because he was a small man, but to Catherine, he was as big as everything good. She loved her Pappa so much.
Once in a while, he would bring something special home from the store for the family to taste. Last week, he even brought home a can of spaghetti for lunch. They had never seen spaghetti before but it tasted really good.
Pappa always did nice things like that.
Catherine’s mother, Rachel, was the love of her life.
Mumma could sew anything. She could also knit and hook whatever the family needed: sweaters, hats, mittens and even rugs!
Being the middle girl meant that Catherine had three older sisters and three younger sisters. Daniel, her little brother, was the baby in the family and the only boy. She always wore “hand me downs” because whenever her older sisters grew out of something, it was handed ‘down’ for Catherine to wear.
Mumma always cleaned and mended the clothes first so they looked just like brand new. Catherine didn’t mind. Her younger sisters wore her hand me downs! Besides, Mumma made Catherine, and all her sisters, a new dress or coat whenever they needed one.
Even Daniel wore some used clothes from the neighbours’ sons, but sometimes he had to get new clothes too.
All the neighbourhood mothers sent their daughters over to Catherine’s house when they needed to get a bow tied in their hair for special occasions. They knew Rachel made the best bows and she was always happy to oblige. Maybe it was because Mumma had so much practice tying bows for her seven girls that she was so good at it, Catherine didn’t know. Whenever there was a school concert or a special day at church, all the little girls in the neighbourhood were told, “Run over to Rachel’s. She’ll do your hair.” A little girl would stand on the back step and wait until Mumma had a minute for her. Then she went away happy and smiling with a big satin bow in her hair.
Catherine knew her mother was special. She was kind and always happy to help out a neighbour. She also sang her “diddles” as she worked around the house. These diddles were little songs, mostly in Gaelic, and Catherine loved hearing her Mumma sing them.
For some reason, Catherine was the only child in the family who understood what the Gaelic words meant. This also meant that she was the only one of the children who could speak to their Grandmother Ann when they went for a visit. Then she would have to translate what was said for her sisters and brother.
This was a good thing because their Grandmother could not speak a word of English! Mumma wasn’t so sure though, especially when she was trying to tell one of her friends something “a little girl should not hear”. Mumma usually spoke in Gaelic, but she still had to make sure Catherine wasn’t listening. Catherine didn’t know how she could understand the language; she just did.
Mumma was a very special person in the neighbourhood. She knew Catherine had very, very good hearing and that’s why she would always say, “Little pictures have big ears”, whenever one of their neighbours dropped by to chat. Catherine didn’t mean to listen but she never missed a word they said.
That’s how she learned that Mumma helped other ladies to bring their new babies into the world. She wasn’t sure how this happened but, whenever someone came running for “Rachel the mid-wife”, sure as could be, a new baby came to that house.
Catherine wouldn’t say a word about what she heard, she just watched and listened. Her Pappa said that she “never missed a trick”. Catherine wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Right now, however, Catherine’s fingers were cold. Her leather leggings were soaked and her toes were sore, because her shoes were too small for her.