“When the weather is nice, Carrigaholt Bay is a lovely place.  We had a beautiful, warm June, but it rained all of July. You are lucky, love, to be here in the sunshine. No one comes here in the wintertime. We get a lot of wind and rain, but in the last few years, we escaped all that. The weather is changing big time. 

My family goes back over a hundred years in Carrigaholt.  Ireland had no jobs, so young men left to find work. My dad worked as a welder in England, and my mom raised me here. I also left and worked in construction in England for 27 years. My mom had a stroke, so I retired and returned home to care for her. She lived for three years. Now it’s just me and Patches.

That is all I can tell you. Whether it is valuable or not, it was nice to meet you, love.”

Tom

The Souls stories this week are from my trip to Ireland a few weeks ago. I learned that my family has lived in Carrigaholt Bay for more than 1600 years. Tom told me about a few relatives who had passed away and showed me where they had lived. Carrigaholt is still a tiny village on the bay and probably hasn’t changed much since my great-great grandfather left Ireland for a better life. It was good to be in Carrigaholt on that sunny day and understand a little more of my own story.