Without a Little Luck, There Is No Happiness: Maricica’s Journey from Rejection to Redemption, Mothe…

Without luck, there would be no happiness

How could you let him take you, you silly girl! Whos going to want you now, with a child on the way? And how will you raise it? Dont expect help from me, you understand! I raised you myselfmust I now carry your burden? Leave my house. Take your things and goI never want to see you again!

Megan listened to her aunts shouting, her gaze fixed on the worn carpet, the last glimmer of hope that her aunt might let her stay until she found work vanishing like mist.
If only Mum were still alive
Shed never known her father, and her mother had died many years agostruck down by a drunken driver at a pedestrian crossing in Norwich. The council nearly took her to care, but a distant relativea third cousin of her mothersswooped in, taking charge. Papers shown, house and salary sufficed.

They lived on the fringes of a sleepy Suffolk town, summers thick and sweltering, winters endlessly drizzly. Megan never went hungry, dressed decent enough, and had learnt hard work early; a cottage with a garden and a menagerie had a list of chores as long as any Sunday sermon. Maybe she lacked a mothers affection, but who cared?

Shed always done well at school. After sixth form, she got a place at university to study teaching. The years flew by, but now, with a degree in hand, she returned home with a heavier heart than ever before.

Out, now! I dont want to see you again!
Auntie Edith, please, just
I said out!

Megan took her battered suitcase and stepped into the blinding noonday sun. How had things come to this? Banished, humiliated, rejected, her stomach just beginning to swellshed admitted her pregnancy, unable to lie.

She had to find somewhere to stay. Wandering the cracked pavement, head bowed and mind clouded, a voice cut through the haze:

Would you like some water, love?

A sturdy woman, perhaps in her fifties, was watching her with a keen eye.

Come in, if you’ve got peace about you.
She handed Megan a jug of cool water. With shaky hands, Megan settled on a garden bench and drank deep.

May I sit a while? The heats dreadful, she croaked.

Take your time, pet. Judging by your case, youre not from around here.

Ive just finished my teaching degree, Megan replied. Im looking for a school jobbut I have nowhere to live. Do you know anyone renting out a room?

The womanher name was Joanlooked her over: tidy, but with shadows ringing her eyes.

You can stay here. I wont ask much, as long as you pay on time, Joan nodded. If you agree, Ill show you the room.

Glad for company as well as a little income, Joan led her through to a small room with a view of the orchardan old iron bed, battered chest-of-drawers, and a table; just enough.

Over the coming days, Megan settled in and took up bits of work. Chores in the house were shared, and in the evenings, she and Joan drank tea under the tangled wisteriadiscussing the oddity of life and its twists.

The pregnancy carried on. Megan confided: thered been Tom, her sweetheart at university, a privileged boy from a family of Cambridge lecturers, whod fled at the first sign of trouble. Thered been a bit of money left by him, and it would need to last.

You did right not to get rid of it, Joan grumbled. An innocent little one will bring its own joy.

By February, the pains began. Joan whisked her to hospital where Megan delivered a sturdy baby boyWilliam. At the ward, she heard whispers of another newborna girl abandoned in the night by her mother.

Anyone able to feed her? Shes frail, called a nurse.
Megan gathered the little one closea pale, diminutive thing, white as Christmas frost.

Ill call you Lily, she murmured.

When Captain Peter Davies, the baby girls father, finally appeared, everything changed. On discharge day, a car with blue and pink ribbons waited outside. The uniformed man helped her in, handing her two parcelsone blue, one pink.

For months, the local village gossiped about the wedding to come. The captain, moved by Megans kindness, had asked for her handand Megan, with baby William and adopted Lily, stepped across the threshold into a life transformed.

Who could have guessed that a blistering summer day and a jug of water would alter the course of so many fates? So it goeslife turns pages you never even dreamt were written.