Keeping Faith by Cindy Bradford (serial 20)
Chapter 8
Cindy Bradford
Waiting to leave for Europe and to study in Rome was difficult for Patrick. For months he had not allowed himself to think about his upcoming travel, but now he was wondering if the day would ever arrive.
Because Patrick was from a family of modest means, touring Europe and studying in Rome would have never been possible had his Uncle Robert not left him, along with his siblings and cousins almost $100,000.00 each. Robert, Patrick’s paternal uncle, was not held in high regard by the other members of the family, due in part, to his reputation for womanizing and bootlegging. Known about town in the forties for his tall stature, good looks and outgoing personality, it would not be unusual to find Robert partying among Boston’s rich and famous and befriending many of the young debutantes in the city.
Although he held no real or “respectable job” as Patrick’s father Joseph, described it, he always managed to have a large roll of hundred dollar bills in his pocket which intrigued the young ones in the family and irritated their elders. So it came as no surprise, to anyone, when Robert married a very rich woman from one of the Brahmin families in Boston.
One night when he was young, Patrick had overheard his parents telling a friend about Robert and Kathleen. “She may have been rich, but she certainly wasn’t pretty,” Joseph had told the friend.
Surprised because he had never heard his father talk like that about anyone, it had become clear to Patrick very early that Joseph did not approve of Robert’s activities or lifestyle. The most telling sign was when he heard the friend say, “I understand she died in childbirth because the baby’s head was too big for her to deliver.”
“We never really knew for sure, but if that were the case, that baby was probably just like Robert. I never saw a man acquire a big head quite as quickly as he did when he put his hands on money.” His dad had responded.
As it had turned out, Robert’s chance to enjoy her money didn’t last long when he was killed inside a billiard hall one night just months after Kathleen died. When the authorities questioned the other men in the hall, no one had seen anything or anybody. According to the story, everyone present kept to the theme that since dead men don’t talk, the death was ruled an accident, and Robert’s assets, according to the will, were divided among the nieces and nephews to be awarded as each turned twenty.
His dad had said that although Kathleen’s family was not at all pleased that all that Brahmin money was going to educate fourteen Catholic children, what disturbed them the very most was the amount of money left. No one ever knew what happened to the bulk of what Kathleen left Robert, but the guess was that his gambling debts exceeded his monthly dividends.
Patrick felt badly that his dad did not inherit any money from his own brother and upon receiving his allotment, he asked his dad to take half. He still remembered his dad’s reply.
“Son, your mother and I have everything we need. You have a life before you. Tainted as that money is, it will allow you to do something that you otherwise would never have experienced, opportunities your mother and I never had. So enjoy it.”