Annie Kate Limerick: Count them

A new life with money they'd never known before! What fun to be rich, what fun to give the children what they wanted. Andrew might be gone all day to construction sites to oversee his workers -- always hire the Irish, he said, they're the most productive. Well, Annie should know. She had nine children under her roof, though Martin was soon to go to college. The first person in their family to go to college, and not even years after they'd come to America! This, to Annie, was the American dream.

She walked into her new foyer. Too many dark colors! This house might have been owned by George Taylor, who signed the Declaration of Independence, but that didn't mean it had to look like a mausoleum. FIrst thing Annie would do, she decided, would be redecorate. And they had the money to do it! She couldn't believe this. They'd grown up in County Meath poor as poor could be, always wondering where the next meal would come from, if they'd have to slaughter their favorite livestock just to survive. They always made it on just this side of starvation. But now, now she was moving into a large corner house in Philadelphia, paid for with cash and a lot of money to buy furniture, rugs, and wallpapers. Annie wanted happy, bright colors to reflect the mood of her family -- all nine children, Andrew, and herself. These were the 1890s. Grover Cleveland was president and it was a new day.

She'd have enough money to feed the children. Martin would go to college. James would apprentice with Andrew. Mary would marry one of the Murphy sons. Isabelle, Josephine, and Lucy would enter the convent. Andrew, Jr., Monica, and Sean -- well, they were too young, but they'd do something great with their lives. What could stop them now? But a nagging voice told Annie Kate, don't count on something lasting forever. Keep a stash in the cellar for a rainy day, she thought, and don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed. Looking around her, it was hard to keep that in the front of her mind. The plush rugs and twinkling chandeliers made it seem too real, too permanent.