Page 61 of Coming Home to Inishbeg Cove

Chapter 39

Sarah

I cried out between the worry of what Jim was saying to me and the incredible pain I was experiencing, the like of which I had never felt before. Something must have happened to him. It was the only explanation why he had left Mrs Manning’s house two hours ago but had never made it home.

I didn’t have time to dwell on it because I was assailed by another contraction, that felt as though it would split my body in two. Maureen stopped pacing the floor and began to rub my back.

‘I don’t think I’ve got much time…’ I wailed.

‘Oh, where is that bloody ambulance?’ she cried. She walked over to the window and pulled back the curtains to see if she could see it coming.

‘It won’t be able to get through the water, Maureen – it’s over a foot high,’ Jim said.

‘Will you call them again? Look at her, Jim’ – she pointed at me – ‘she won’t hold out much longer. They need to get here soon!’

Jim left the room again and returned a while later, more grim-faced than the last time. ‘The ambulance is stuck about five miles from the village. It can’t get through the water. They’re dispatching the helicopter to airlift her to the hospital, but we need to get her up onto high ground so it can land. I told them we’d meet them up on the headland.’

Maureen looked aghast. ‘We can’t expect Sarah to trek up there in this state, Jim!’ she protested.

‘We’ve no choice,’ Jim said, shaking his head. ‘We either get up to that headland or else…’

His unfinished sentence galvanised me into action, I had to do this for my babies. The alternative – well, it didn’t bear thinking about.

‘Come on, love,’ Maureen soothed. ‘Between us, we’ll get you up there.’

I linked their arms and we stepped outside onto the main street. The water seemed to have risen in the short time I had been inside the B&B. I glanced around, hoping to catch sight of Greg, but he was nowhere to be seen. I was terrified that something awful had happened to him. Why else had he not arrived home after leaving Mrs Manning’s? What if he had fallen and been submerged under the floodwater somehow or was trapped somewhere?

Maureen and Jim supported me as we began to wade through the water towards the dunes that led up to the cliff path. The wind howled and raged. At times we all had to stop to catch our breath as we didn’t have the strength to fight through it. Sometimes I would have to drop Jim and Maureen’s grip as I bent double with pain.

‘You’re nearly there now,’ they encouraged me. I wondered if Maureen was thinking of her younger sister Della, Greg’s birth mother, who had once made the same arduous trip up the headland while in the throes of labour. The irony that I was walking in the footsteps of the woman who had given birth to Greg wasn’t wasted on me.

‘There’s no sign of that chopper,’ Jim said, anxiously scanning the sky. ‘They said it had already been dispatched. It shouldn’t take that long, surely?’

‘Please God, it’ll be along shortly,’ Maureen reassured him. She gave my hand a squeeze. I knew she was trying to stay positive for my sake.

‘I can feel pressure,’ I cried out.

‘Oh, sweet Jesus! Jim, ring them again and see where the hell it is!’ Maureen’s hair clung to her face and she looked wretched with worry.

Jim took out his phone and tried to talk to the operator once more, but it was difficult with the wind howling in his ears.

‘I think they said it should be here in a few minutes, but I could hardly hear what they were saying,’ he confessed.

I hung on to Maureen as my body was seized by pain. I seemed to be getting no break between contractions, and I didn’t think I could hang on for much longer. What if my body just couldn’t keep the babies in any more?

‘Listen!’ Jim cried.

I heard the welcome thrum of rotor blades coming towards us.

‘There it is.’ He pointed. In the distance a beam of light cut a path through the sky like a beacon. Relief flooded through me as the helicopter swooped in over the headland. Its giant blades were deafening even above the roar of the wind and its searchlight scoured the ground, presumably searching for us. Jim and Maureen began waving frantically in the hope they would see us, and it wasn’t long before the helicopter was hovering above us. We watched it wobble in the wind as it attempted to descend, then it lurched to the right. The crew steadied it and tried again but again it tipped right in the wind. It tried once more, but it seemed that the crew couldn’t hold it steady enough to land. I felt sick thinking what would happen if they couldn’t land. Please, Mam and Dad, I found myself praying to my deceased parents. Please let this helicopter get me and my babies to safety.

I watched in dismay as the helicopter ascended again, leaving me stranded on the headland. My heart sank.

‘Where the hell are they going?’ Jim shouted angrily at the sky.

If they left me here, I knew there was no hope for my babies. This was it: my future hinged on this moment. All my hopes and dreams of having a family with Greg had been reduced to this single minute in time. We watched as the helicopter turned around and tried the descent again from a different angle. This time, miraculously, the helicopter stayed steady. Jim and Maureen screamed with delight when eventually it landed on the grass in front of us.

Once the blades had stopped rotating, Jim and Maureen helped me make my way towards the helicopter. Pain racked my body and the pressure between my legs was terrifying. The crew took over and helped me climb into the helicopter.

I said a hasty goodbye to Maureen and Jim, who promised me they would find Greg and tell him what had happened.

Then I was strapped in and hooked up to gas and air, which the paramedics said would take the edge off the pain. As the helicopter tried to take off again, we were all tossed from side to side inside. Eventually it found an even keel and as I inhaled the Entonox with each contraction, I felt as though I was floating over the bay.

As the helicopter headed for the hospital, I could hear a conversation taking place over the staticky radio.

‘Rescue 116, do you receive me?’ a voice said.

‘Roger.’

‘Whereabouts are you, Rescue 116?’

‘En route to Limerick Hospital, ETA 23.10. Over.’

‘We have another casualty in Inishbeg Cove. A male has been found unconscious under a fallen tree. Over.’

My heart stopped beating as the operator continued to talk.

It was Greg.