Postscript Quotes
"Patient Penelope. The wife of the King of Odysseus. A serious and diligent character, a devoted wife and mother, some critics dismiss her as a symbol of marital fidelity, but Penelope is a complex woman who weaves her plots as deftly as she weaves a garment."
"Penelope worked at weaving a shroud for the eventual funeral of her father-in-law Laertes, claiming she would choose a husband as soon as the shroud was completed. By day, she worked on a great loom in the royal halls, at night she secretly unravelled what she had done."
"‘The story of Penelope’s loom, which we see here, symbolises one of the queen’s cunning tricks.'"
"‘So, no then,’ I mumble to Gabriel as the group move on. ‘Silly Penelope.’"
"‘She could have just slept with them all while she was waiting,’ he says. ‘Not much fun, Prudish Penelope.’"
"‘Let’s do it.’ He punches the air and makes a quiet stadium-sized-crowd-cheering sound."
"‘You say that you’re not unique,’ Ciara says, ‘but everybody’s personal experience is unique and we can learn from one another.'"
"‘I learned that rock bottom can actually be a springboard.’"
"‘His letters helped me to find myself again. It took losing him to make me discover a part of myself that I never knew existed.’"
"‘But the more I move on and the more new experiences I have, the more the old memories get pushed aside.'"
"‘If Gerry had had someone helping him with his letters, I would have besieged them with questions.'"
"‘Waiting … waiting for what, a reunion in death that I don’t even know will happen?’"
"‘How have I ended up deep in this conversation?’"
"‘I can’t write. I can barely read. I can’t do it.’"
"‘I was helping Ciara.’ I shut his compliment down. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to start talking about my ex-husband for a living.’"
"‘But I do know where the milk is,’ he says, perking up and pulling open a door."
"‘That’s where that is. Joy always makes the tea. They’ll probably want the sugar bowl too.’"
"‘I’m not going to steal nothing,’ she says. ‘You keep staring. I’m not going to steal nothing,’ the teenager says defensively, annoyed."
"‘It’s like a pub quiz. For example, question one: where did Brian Boru lose his life in his final battle?’"
"‘I can’t write it all down about her, then she’ll never know. All she’ll have of me is one letter for the rest of her life, and that letter has to be from me. About me and her. Everything about us that only we know and that she won’t remember.’"
"‘But Gerry is blurring. Though he lives on in the stories we share and in my memory, it is becoming harder to summon the vivid living, moving, fluid, animated Gerry to mind.’"
"‘This is the third course of IVF that has failed in six years.’"
"‘I can’t do this four more times.’ There is pain in her voice. ‘We can’t afford one more time. This has wiped us out.’"
You’re doing this for you? Or for them?" "For all of us.
"Life cannot just be taken away from us without our consent. Given time, and our permission having been granted, we would accept our fate and plot our own timely deaths. But we can’t."
"Love is a tenuous, rarefied thing. Something to be prized and cherished, displayed for all to see, not hidden away in a cupboard, or to feel ashamed of."
"I think surviving the first prepared me for the second, for this moment, and for anything else that lays ahead."
"We want to control our deaths, our goodbye to the world, and if we can’t control it, we can at least control how we leave it behind."
"He’s different," she says, her eyes moving from Gabriel to Gerry. "Polar opposites," I agree.
"It’s only paper, but it’s not. They’re only words, but they’re not."
"The photographs of both men would perhaps say to others... that you are considerably fortunate to have the indubitable honour of safeguarding the love of not one, but two men in your heart."
"I outlived my husband, and now I’ve outgrown him. The beauty and challenge of long-term relationships is that you change and shift at different times in different directions."
"Turns out the photographer knew what we didn’t. His flimsy string wasn’t strong enough to carry the weight of his heavy frame and glass. Gerry and I lie on the floor covered in broken glass."
"Of all the areas in the shop, the trinket display is my favourite. It’s an old drawer unit that Ciara found, a chunky old-school dresser with three wide heavy drawers and on top stands a discoloured mirror..."
"‘What you got there, magpie?’ Ciara interrupts my thoughts."
"‘What do you call a zoo with one dog?’ I ask, finally breaking the silence."
"‘She needs me.’ He places his hand on my forearm, holds me tightly."
"‘I’m thinking of hiring volunteers,’ Ciara declares from the other side of the shop."
"I sit with Joy in her kitchen. We are alone, for the first time."
"I wonder if I could ask one more thing of you,’ she says as I meet her eye."
"Despite the awkwardness of Ginika grabbing Jewel from Denise’s arms and announcing she’d like to leave, Denise offers to drive Ginika home, and Ginika accepts."
"The arrival of the waitress to take our order is the only break in the silence."
"I close my eyes. I tell myself he is not sick, he is not dying. Plans change. That’s life."
"Life is light, dying is darkness, death is light again. Full circle."
"‘Holly,’ he says passionately, ‘I’m not ending us. I need to hold back on the bigger plans for a while, that’s all.’"
"‘I thought you might be a bit relieved to hear this.’"
"‘I’m trying to leave very fucking fast, but I fucking well can’t,’ I say through gritted teeth."
"‘I don’t want your help,’ I mumble. But I need it."
"‘Maybe you’re glad you brought me,’ she says, holding out her hand for me to lead the way."
"‘I think,’ she continues after a long pause. ‘That if anything, he was compromising.’"
"I am proud of myself for doing this. It is not breaking me as others, and I, thought it might."
"I ring the doorbell. It takes a while for the door to be answered and while I’ve only ever met Rita a few times, her sister is indeed the image of her, though harder-looking."
"You can’t replace people, Paul, you’ll never be replaced, but you can replace roles."
"Life has roots, and death, death grows them too."
"I am motionless but not powerless. Move, Holly, move."
"I don’t need his things to feel him with me, that he’d always be there wrapping his arms around me, guiding me."
"It was weeks of work, gathering items, reminiscing, holding on then letting go as I allocated homes for them."
"I prefer this version of me, yet I became this way because I lost him."
"Thank you for doing me the honour of being my wife. For everything, I am eternally grateful."
"Time is no one’s friend, and in my effort to move on and let go, to face the light, I suppose that fraction of my life got bumped."
"Being involved in the PS, I Love You Club has given me new insight into why Gerry wrote his letters."
"Gerry left it to me because it was valuable, but it’s worth more to his dad."
"I remember the moment the watch stopped, two days after Gerry’s death."
"‘Jesus, would you shut up? He’ll hear you!’ Ginika slaps my leg."
"‘You’d be a great ma,’ she says softly."
"‘I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about you. What are you going to do when the three of us are gone?’"
"‘I love you more than anyone or anything in the hole world.’"
"‘You are the best thing I have ever done.’"
"‘It’s all anyone wants. Not to get lost, or left behind, not to be forgotten, to always be a part of the moments they know they’ll miss.’"
"‘You’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette,’ I say aloud, surveying the disaster site that is my bedroom."
"‘I want to go to sleep in a room where I don’t have an aching longing for someone who’s gone and will never come back.’"
"‘Roots and wings,’ I repeat, liking it. ‘I hate goodbyes,’ I say with a sigh."
"‘I know. I’m here for you. Joy is here. Paul is here. Denise is here. We’re all here for you. You’re not alone.’"
"‘Thank you for everything. You did more than any of us ever asked you to.’"
"‘For every goodbye, there’s been a hello.’"
"‘I want to honour her and the other four original members by continuing the club.’"
"‘I’d like that.’ We stop walking. ‘This is Philip’s room.’"
‘Hey, guys, it’s me, Sandra aka "Bam-It’s-Mam!" and welcome to my YouTube channel!’
"‘I’m sure you’re still beautiful. I’m sure you’re still kind.’"
"‘You’ll always be loved, from here and away, from near and from far.’"
"‘I have experience in loving you from afar, remember?’"
"‘Good luck with your new adventure, whatever it is.’"
"‘I love you, beautiful, and I’m still glad you said yes.’"