Authors: Elvira Woodruff
Small Beauties (5 page)
dog violets,
and heather too.
“
Ach mucha.
Dear me.” Mother gasped at the sight of the old wooden bead from Granny’s rosary.
A hush fell over the family then as they watched Darcy next pull a little chip of slate from her hem.
And what is that one there?” her brothers whispered, leaning in close.
“ ’Tis a bit of our hearthstone,” she told them, holding the chip in her palm.
And suddenly the old familiar smell of a peat fire was in the air. They could hear Granny humming to the baby and the creak of her chair. They heard their own laughter as the piglets squealed. And soon the hushy whisper of Granddad’s voice filled their ears. “Long ago, on our fair Isle of Erin . . .”
And so it was that Granny O’Hara’s prediction came to be true, for those small beauties that Darcy held in her hand called up the very memories her family held most dear. And Darcy Heart O’Hara went right on noticing.
Author’s Note:
While Darcy and her family sprung from my imagination, the spark for their story came from my reading about a very real family who was forced to leave Ireland during the famine.
They left County Cork in 1847, sailing first to Canada and then on to America. Sadly, the mother of this family died aboard ship, but her children survived and settled with their father in Michigan. One son, William, went on to marry and have a son of his own called Henry.
This boy loved to tinker with the machines on the farm, and he grew up to become one of the forefathers of American industry. But his family’s memories of fleeing the famine were very much a part of who Henry was, despite his success and fame.
Years later, he traveled to Ireland. A millionaire many times over, he could have afforded the most precious of gems—diamonds, rubies, and more. And yet what stone did he choose to ship back to America? A worthless old hearthstone removed from a humble cottage—worthless to some, but priceless to Henry Ford, for it was the very hearthstone that his father’s family had gathered around the night before they were to leave Ireland forever.
Henry Ford, whose “horseless carriage,” the automobile, changed the landscape of America, understood the importance of family memory. I hope you will too. And just as Darcy did, take the time to notice the small beauties you have all around you. For one day you may find that they are the very memories you treasure most.
ELVIRA WOODRUFF
has written more than twenty picture books and novels for young readers, including
Dear Levi: Letters from the Overland Trail, Dear Austin: Letters from the Underground Railroad, The Ghost of Lizard Light,
and
The Memory Coat,
illustrated by Michael Dooling. She lives in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.
ADAM REX
is the acclaimed illustrator of
The Dirty Cowboy
by Amy Timberlake,
Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-Comin’!
by Jill Esbaum, and the Lucy Rose books by Katy Kelly. He lives in Philadelphia. You can visit him on the Web at
www.adamrex.com
.
Jacket art copyright © 2006 by Adam Rex
