Mrs. Feeney

1. She'd been in Liverpool her entire life—from when she was a baby, born in the same house she'd given birth to Jude in, then a little girl, having her adventures with her friends and skipping stones by the docks, and playing on the streets—everyone did it at the time, and they still do. She dearly loved her childhood, and craved it when she grew up and was falling painfully in love.

2. She hates him. She loves him, and yet she hates him, because he left her and Jude all alone to fend for themselves. Because he'd told her everything she wanted to hear, and made the little things come true, and then disappeared. Her thoughts on this have not changed since she gave birth to her son.

3. She wasn't all that surprised when Jude went to find his father—she'd known he would want to do it eventually, to satisfy his curiosity. What surprised her though is the letter she received afterwards—she'll never forget: Mum, staying in America till further notice. Write more later. Love, Jude.

4. She was bitterly disappointed in her son when he came back ad told her the story, in bits. She'd thought and prided herself on having raised him never to abandon, never to give up. The fact that he still loved that girl and wasn't going after her as he should drove her mad. She wouldn't speak to him for a while because of that, and then he confessed a little more, bit by bit… still, she had to admire this Lucy. She had her son, who'd been with at least ten different women in his last three years in Liverpool, standing on a knife's edge.

5. She's proud of him for going after her in the end. And when she visited them, when he was ready to marry her and start a family, she told him so. He blushed and said she was delusional, but she knew he was secretly preening inside. Twenty years with him; she knew her son.

6. She loved Eleanor. She was the most adorable child on earth. She looked like her mother, but with her son's coloring—her coloring, essentially—and she was just beautiful. She knows she showered the girl with too many knit sweaters and skirts and dresses—but she didn't care in the least. Eleanor could have the wardrobe of a queen, for all she cared—she would still deserve it.

7. Lucy was a good girl. She liked her a lot, and was happy with her son for making such a fine choice in a woman. But the girl was stubborn, and that worried her a little—till Eleanor was born into the world, and she became a mother. Because having to be the mother of Jude Feeney's child was certainly going to require stubbornness.

8. Living with him would too. She tried to warn Lucy, but the younger woman told her she knew. When she asked how, she blushed, which in turn made her blush, which really became far too awkward… until her son walked in, oblivious, of course, because he was male, and looking between the two women bewilderedly. Martha Feeney laughed outright and patted her new daughter's cheek.

9. She was positively frightened when she found out she had cancer. Then she realized—she was sixty-four. She'd lived this long—if she survived, all was well. If she didn't, her time had come. And she learned to accept it from there.

10. She's glad she got to see Rose before she died, with both her parents and a huge family to boot. It relieved her, the slightest bit.