House at the Shore (ePub)

Starting in Ireland during the potato famine, a family is driven to emigrateto the U.S. for a better life. Parents and four children land in Philadelphiato begin anew. Aidan and Susan Curran begin in a society unfriendly tothe Irish. Through determination and hard work, they eventually improvetheir lot and become people of substance. The children go on to their ownlives. One becomes a Catholic nun, one a teacher. The two men start smallin real estate and eventually own a good portion of South Philadelphia. They have their trials and tribulations, become involved with thebusiness classes of the city and move on to better things. One son has a child who is affl icted with asthma, causing them tobuild a home on the South Jersey coast to ease the symptoms. The homeoriginally a summer cottage, fi gures greatly in their lives ever after. The son grows up to be somewhat of a genius. He goes to medicalschool and opens a practice. He marries and raises fi ve children. Duringhis lifetime he becomes adept at the practice of medicine, pharmacy,painting and poetry. He conquers several languages and becomes anamateur boxer. He joins the Army Medical Corp in 1918 and leaves hisfour children and a wife expecting a fi fth, to go to war. While stationed in France he is decorated as well as wounded. Hereturns at wars end to fi nd his only son has acquired the same symptomshe had as a boy. For the childs health, they decide to move permanentlyto the Jersey shore. He opens a practice there and all through the 1920s life goes on ina calm wonderful way, although he is aware of some nagging seeminglyminor medical problems. The Depression comes and he fi nds that during the war, when hiswife was the only one to answer to, his lawyers and bankers had robbedhim blind. From a life style of wealth and comfort the family is forced to go onRelief to get food on the table. The doctor looses all his real estate totaxes, treats his patients for free and experiences faltering health. All theyhave left to their name is the house at the shore. The doctor fi nally realizes that the mustard gas he was exposed to hasbeen killing him ever since he was in the army. At his death, the fi ve children who grew up to expect life would alwaysbe good and comfortable, have to change their lifestyles. A challengewhen none were prepared to do so. The story does not have a happy ending. But no one ever said lifewas fair. The house at the shore is the only survivor