Even on Days when it Rains (15 page)

WHEN I WAS
growing up, my mother used to say to us that we should never feel there was anyone out there in the world who was better than us. In other words, that we should never feel inferior to anyone else, regardless of their status in life. She'd sip from her cup of tea in the evening after we'd eaten and tell us, ‘There's nobody in the world who's better than another person. Everyone was born as clean as the other, so there's no difference between any of us.'

Through Daniel I have met all kinds of people – the rich, the famous and ordinary folk like myself. And I have always remembered my mother's words. As a result, I've been neither nervous nor excited about any other person.

When Daniel got his own TV show in Ireland at the end of the 1980s, many international stars were among his guests. But it wasn't just Daniel who got the opportunity to meet them – I was always brought backstage and introduced to them too.

As fans of Daniel know, he loves the American country legend Loretta Lynn. So imagine his excitement when he was told that Loretta had agreed to come to Ireland to appear on his show.

Never mind what my mother used to say about nobody being better than you, Daniel was a nervous wreck when Loretta arrived in Dublin to perform with him. Although he doesn't normally get flustered, even when the world is collapsing all around him, he was acting like a turkey at Christmas before meeting Loretta.

Loretta was a lovely woman, though. She probably spotted that Daniel was nervous, but she was so funny and kind and without any airs or graces that he soon settled down. The pair of them then sang ‘How Great Thou Art'. It was really lovely. Later, I was taken to the dressing room at the TV show and Daniel brought me in to meet Loretta. She was a very striking-looking woman in the flesh. She had piercing blue eyes and Cherokee cheekbones. She was really warm and friendly. I had made a batch of pancakes especially for her, and when I gave them to her she was so thankful. ‘Oh, you are such a sweetheart,' she said, giving me a hug.

Loretta had had a very hard time herself during her early days, as I discovered when I'd gone to see
The Coalminer's Daughter
, which was a very good
and
honest film about her life. I discovered how she came from a really poor background, just like myself, in a place called Butchers Hollow, Kentucky. She had been married at 13 and a mother at 14, and by the age of 18 she'd given birth to four of her six children. By the time she reached 30, Loretta was a grandmother, as well as one of the biggest stars of country music. I really admired how she had turned her life around from such a tough start, and how she had battled through everything that life threw at her to achieve great success while remaining a very grounded person.

Loretta's husband, Doolittle, came to Ireland with her for Daniel's show. And I'll tell you, I wasn't too impressed with him after watching the film. He'd been a bit of a jack-the-lad who'd been carousing with other women behind her back.

Someone pointed out Doolittle to me in a backstage area, and suddenly I was reminded of the film and the story of their life started running through my head like a show reel. I remembered that Doolittle didn't even have a ring to give the young Loretta on their wedding day. As I looked him up and down that day and caught his eye, I couldn't think of any redeeming feature about the man – he wasn't even handsome.

I eventually sidled up to Doolittle and gave him a
piece
of my mind. ‘You were a right boyo!' I said. ‘Hadn't you the cheek to marry that nice girl and no ring with you!' Well, he couldn't get away from me fast enough. Daniel was mortified when he heard what I'd said to Doolittle. He and Loretta had been engrossed in conversation at the time.

Many years later, that incident caused Daniel great concern when he learned that he was going to receive an award from Prince Charles.

On the morning of New Year's Eve 2001, we woke up to newspaper and radio reports that Daniel had been awarded an honorary MBE by the Queen of England. Apparently a large number of his fans had written to Queen Elizabeth telling her about Daniel's charity work, particularly his involvement in a Romanian charity that had been helping to improve the quality of life for the poor unfortunates of an orphanage in a town called Siret. One of our neighbours, Eileen Oglesby, had been working in the orphanage, and she had told Daniel about the inhumane conditions those young people were forced to endure in that terrible place. They were sleeping 30 to a room, both boys and girls, in a run-down building. It was a house of horrors.

During his time in power, the dictator Nicolae Ceauçescu had ordered that every family in Romania
should
have five children. But parents couldn't afford to support families of five, so they dumped the children in those orphanages. Daniel decided to record a single called ‘Give a Little Love' and donate all the profits to this charity. Before releasing the single, however, he went out to Romania to make a video for the song. He had no thoughts of becoming involved in the charity at that time, but he told me later that once he arrived there and saw at first hand the shocking conditions that those unfortunate human beings were living in, he knew that he couldn't walk away from them. The stories he told about what he witnessed on that first visit to the orphanage sent shivers down my spine. Daniel says he'll never forget the awful stench that greeted him as he entered the building, and the pitiful sight of young people who had been locked away and forgotten by the world. Many of them, he said, had suffered terrible disabilities from being confined; their heads were shaved, and they spent their time rocking back and forth. They had nothing to stimulate them and no one to show them love. He said that many of them went to him and hugged him. They didn't know Daniel, but they would hug anybody who showed them any kind of warmth and attention.

‘Give a Little Love' was released in April 1998 and was a great success in the charts, both in
Ireland
and in Britain. Daniel went on to use the stage and his fame to draw people's attention to the suffering of those people, and through his shows he encouraged fans to support the work of the charity by making donations. A collection was organized at each of his concerts.

In the years since then, wonderful things have been happening in Siret. The charity is now involved in farming and has built homes to give the people of the orphanage the opportunity to have a normal life.

It's not that Daniel did any of this for some sort of recognition. It's just something that came into his life by chance. But it was taken into account by the Queen when she awarded him an MBE. Daniel was delighted when he heard the news because he felt that getting an MBE would mean so much to his English fans. That their Queen was recognizing Daniel was the greatest honour they could have given him. And the fact that it was coming from his fans as well as the Queen made it an award for Daniel himself to treasure.

Some time later, Daniel received an invitation to the British Ambassador's residence in Dublin, where the MBE was to be presented to him by Prince Charles. Daniel was allowed to take some guests,
and
that's how I found myself in the company of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales.

Before the special occasion, however, Daniel warned me to be on my best behaviour. He didn't want a repeat of the Doolittle incident. You see, Daniel knew that I worshipped Princess Diana. For some reason I became a fan, not something I normally do. But, like so many other people, I took a real shine to her. I even kept a scrapbook of stories about her. I saw something special in her, saintly even. She used her status and fame to support the underprivileged, the downtrodden and all kinds of worthy causes. She was good to people of every race and religion. I saw her visiting children who were suffering from AIDS and all kinds of illnesses, and she would lift them up in her arms. I could see that she was a genuinely caring person. And I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. Nobody else came close.

Naturally, I was upset for Diana when her marriage fell apart. Her wedding had seemed like a fairy tale. This was a real live Prince and Princess who looked so much in love. But all wasn't as it seemed, and the fairy tale didn't last. That saddened me. And then, of course, there was Diana's tragic death in Paris. I cried for a day when I heard the shocking news. My daughter Margaret phoned me
from
London that morning to tell me. I was devastated and my heart went out to Diana's two boys. Some time later I wrote to the boys, and I received a reply thanking me for my letter.

I was aware that Daniel was worried about me meeting Prince Charles. He was delighted that I was allowed to accompany him to the big occasion and happy that I was still alive to witness it. But knowing my devotion to Diana and remembering how I had chastised Doolittle, he was on tenterhooks in case I'd have a go at Charles about his relationship with Camilla. He warned me not to saying anything that might offend the Prince. I heard later that he'd said to Margaret, ‘She's liable to say anything, you know.'

The first thing I noticed about Prince Charles was his beaming smile. Next I noticed that he's not as tall as he looks on the television. I'd always thought he was very tall, but he's much smaller than I imagined. He was very dapper in his smart suit, very charming and easy to like. I could see that, despite being a member of the royal family, he had a common touch. He moved slowly through the room joking with people as they greeted him. He seemed to be a very easy person to be around. As he was getting nearer and nearer to me, I'm sure the family members with me were becoming more and more anxious. Finally,
Prince
Charles was standing before me and I heard Daniel saying, ‘This is my mother.'

‘How lovely to meet you,' the Prince said.

I smiled and replied, ‘How is your granny?' At that time there had been reports that the Queen Mother wasn't very well.

‘She's marvellous, marvellous … doing very well,' the Prince replied.

‘I'm delighted to hear that,' I said.

Prince Charles thanked me. And then he kissed my hand before moving on to meet the other MBE recipients in the room.

I was charmed. And I'm sure that my son, Daniel O'Donnell MBE, was relieved.

On the journey by car to Donegal that night, my mind wandered back to my young days on Owey. Suddenly I was a child running barefoot along the stony paths to check on the cows. It was a world away from royalty and the grandeur of the embassy building where I'd just spent the evening with Prince Charles!

ALTHOUGH MATERIAL POSSESSIONS
have never interested Daniel, his success has allowed him to enjoy some really nice things in life. They include his own lovely island home on Tenerife in the Canaries, where I've been a regular visitor in latter years. It's so good to go there and get some heat into my old bones.

Daniel loves Tenerife as a place to go and relax in the sun after his tours. And of course it's really special to him today as it was there that he met Majella.

For many years, one of my prayers was for Daniel to find someone nice who would love him and look after him as I'd always done. There were a couple of times when it looked like those prayers were going to be answered. But sadly it didn't come to pass. I always said I would die contented when I saw him happily married.

I knew that Daniel's life as a travelling singer made it difficult for him to meet someone special, as he was never in one place for very long. And I knew
that
it's not every woman who could live with an entertainer's job. Singers like Daniel who do lots of touring are away from home for long periods. They give a lot of their lives to the people who follow them. It's not a big sacrifice for them, of course, because they get a lot back in return. But it's not easy for a wife and family to deal with that kind of a life and those times of separation.

As the years passed and Daniel's 40th birthday was coming up, I really thought he would remain married to the stage for the rest of his life. He had moved back from Dublin to our home in Kincasslagh, where I was living with my daughter Kathleen, her husband, John, and their children. Daniel had built his own living area at the rear of the house overlooking the sea. He seemed to be very happy there, so I thought that he was going to remain a bachelor. Little did I know that he'd cast his eye on someone in Tenerife in 1999.

Daniel had met Majella, whose father and mother, Tom and Marion Roche, ran a bar on the island. It was a while before I was told about this big romance because he was concerned about how I would react. Majella had been married previously and was the mother of two teenage children. Daniel knew that didn't sit well with my religion.

One day my daughter Margaret told me that Daniel
had
a girlfriend and filled me in on the background. Margaret had been to Tenerife, had met Majella and was very impressed by her. At the time of that conversation, Margaret and I were preparing to go out to visit Daniel in Tenerife for a short holiday.

‘When you meet Majella will you try to put behind you the fact that she's divorced?' Margaret said to me as we packed our suitcases. ‘Daniel's happiness means a lot, and they will be good for each other,' she stressed.

I didn't know what to think on the plane journey. I was in a state of confusion because, while I wanted Daniel to be happy, I was afraid that he would get hurt.

Majella came to meet us at the airport. The first things I noticed about her were her big smile and friendly eyes. She was tanned and looked very well in her white slacks, red blouse and flat, comfortable shoes. She said hello, gave me a hug and helped me with my suitcase. Majella was a warm human being; in fact she was a nice country woman from Thurles in County Tipperary.

Later, when she was around Daniel, I could see that they were happy together. He looked very relaxed in her company, and they shared the same sense of humour. There was a lot of laughter in the room when they were there. At the time, Daniel didn't
say
anything to me about his relationship. I suppose men, particularly sons, are not good at that kind of thing.

We had a really nice time during that visit, and on the way home I remarked to Margaret, ‘Majella is a lovely girl. It's a pity she's married.'

Margaret laughed. ‘Mother, she's not married. She's divorced.'

Daniel chose 12 December 2001, the night of his big 40th-birthday charity banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham, to introduce Majella in public as his girlfriend. I sat at the top table with them, and I could see that she was nervous about the announcement. She was sipping a glass of white wine to steady herself.

There were 1,200 people in the banquet hall that night when Daniel went up to the stage after the meal and told them that he had someone special to introduce to them. I'm sure many of them thought it was going to be me, because no one knew at that time that he had a girlfriend. You could have heard a pin drop when Daniel told his fans that he had found someone that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He told them how happy he was, and he expressed the wish that they would accept her as part of his life. Then he introduced Majella.

I have to admit that I shed a little tear as I sat there listening to Daniel talk about the special woman in his life. Up to that moment, I had been that special woman; it's not easy for a mother to let go.

On Christmas Day, Daniel and Majella had us over for dinner at the lovely home he'd bought at Cruit overlooking the sea, with Owey in the distance. I was there with my daughter Kathleen, and her husband, John, and a few friends. Daniel suggested to Majella that she should go up to their room and phone her mother in Tenerife before we all settled down for the meal. Within a few seconds, Daniel followed Majella, and I assumed that he wanted to wish Tom and Marion a happy Christmas.

After a short time, Majella came back to the dining room and her face was flushed. She looked like she'd been crying. Daniel was just behind her and he was beaming.

‘Folks,' he said, ‘we have just got engaged.'

Daniel had surprised Majella with an engagement ring, taking the phone from her as she spoke with her mother. He told Marion what he was about to do, and Majella burst into tears.

I burst into tears too when Daniel broke the news to us. Everyone got very emotional, but we were happy for both of them.

Some time later Daniel and Majella announced
to
the family that they had set the date for their wedding: 4 November 2002. I have to admit that, while I was happy that he was happy, I still had a lot of misgivings about Daniel marrying Majella because she had been married before. So I was praying that he had made the right decision.

The wedding day was one of the saddest and hardest times of my life because I was losing Daniel. I cried all day. I was happy for him that he had found someone to share his life with, despite my misgivings, but I was feeling so sorry for myself. To add to my woes, I woke up on the morning of the wedding suffering from some kind of a bug. I was feeling poorly. I was also in a lot of pain because I had burnt my foot on a hot-water bottle in bed the previous night. A big blister had now come up on it, and I wasn't able to put on the new shoes that I'd bought for the wedding. It wasn't a great start to the big day for me.

The house was a hive of activity that morning. Daniel had observed tradition by spending the night apart from his bride-to-be and had slept at our house.

‘How did you sleep, Daniel?' I asked him when he popped his head round the door at breakfast time, thinking he was going to say that he'd had a bad
night
because of the excitement and nerves over the wedding ceremony.

‘Well, I'll tell you not a word of a lie, Mother. I slept soundly,' he said.

I could see that he was in good spirits, and there were no signs of any nerves. Not that he got much time to think about it with all the fuss. Family members were in and out of the bathroom, the girls were busy doing their hair and make-up, and then Daniel's party, the best man and groomsmen, arrived – his childhood friend P.J. Sweeney, his nephew John Francis and our James. They were all looking very smart in their wedding suits.

The wedding was set for 1 p.m. in our little parish church in Kincasslagh. Daniel was anxious to have everyone there on time because Majella had told him she wouldn't keep him waiting for long. She'd be there at five minutes past the hour.

Entering our lovely little church I was in a very emotional state. There were so many memories for me in that church. It was there that Francie and myself had married. The tap was on and the tears were flowing.

I was in my seat and the church had filled up with all the guests when Daniel came through the door and over to the front pew. He had a smile from ear to ear coming in, but when he saw all of us – his
family
and friends – gathered under one roof for his wedding, he suddenly burst into tears himself. ‘God, I don't know why I'm crying,' he said as he greeted everyone.

Finally, Daniel sat in the groom's spot at the top of the church as we waited for the arrival of Majella. The minutes ticked away and Daniel shuffled anxiously in his seat. Occasionally, he glanced at his best man's watch. After 20 minutes, he was looking a bit worried. After all, Majella had warned him to be on time. By this stage, we were all getting a bit restless.

Finally, word came through on someone's mobile phone that there had been a hitch. Majella was trapped behind the electric gates at their home. Daniel wasn't the least bit ruffled by this setback. I think he was relieved that there hadn't been an accident and it was something that could be sorted out. To pass the time, he sauntered up and down the aisles greeting all of his guests.

Another 20 minutes went by before Majella finally arrived, and, as the wedding music struck up, the floodgates opened again. Hearing Daniel and Majella take their vows was a moment I had prayed for, but I'd never considered that it would be such a wrench for me.

*

Daniel's wedding caused a big stir that day, even though he hadn't turned it into a show business affair by inviting lots of stars. Hundreds of his devoted fans came along to the little churchyard and waited patiently in the rain to see the happy couple. The wedding Mass was very long, but they still kept a vigil out in the cold and the rain. There were photographers peeping out from behind headstones in the graveyard, and later I was told that Sky News had been broadcasting live from outside our church. You'd think it was a royal wedding it got so much attention.

As Daniel and Majella and the rest of the guests travelled in a convoy that evening from Kincasslagh to the town of Letterkenny, where the wedding reception was to be held in a local hotel, bonfires were blazing along the route and locals braved the heavy rain in honour of the happy couple. It was really lovely to see how much people still cared for Daniel in his home county. I was very proud; it lifted my spirits because I was feeling very poorly on the journey due to the bug I'd picked up. All I wanted to do at that moment was to get into a nice, comfortable bed.

At the hotel I could see that Daniel and Majella had put a lot of thought into their big day. The flowers in the banquet room were just beautiful, and people stood to admire the wedding cake. Our neighbour
Eileen
Oglesby, who had introduced Daniel to the Romanian charity, had made the cake. It was designed like a fountain and was a real work of art. It was a shame to slice it up.

Later, during the reception, Daniel made a wonderful speech, and if I had any doubts about his feelings towards me, well, he put them to rest when he spoke that evening. I cried over his beautiful words when he said, ‘I was six when my father died and from then on my mother has been everything to me. She never let me feel that I needed anything I couldn't get. She gave me security, she gave me love, and she gave me encouragement to sing. When I started singing I was always going to tell the world how wonderful she was, and she will always be that same person, that wonderful woman who was such an influence in our lives.'

Today, I am the happiest mother and mother-in-law alive. Any concerns I had about Majella at the beginning have been put to rest. She has been good for Daniel. I think she is great. Majella has given Daniel a wonderful life away from the stage. They are a happy couple who enjoy their time together. It is so lovely to see him settled and content.

Majella is very good to me too, and we are the best of friends. I even gave her the secret recipe for my famous pancakes. That's something I never gave
another
person, so I suppose that says a lot about our relationship and what I think of her. Daniel joked in an interview one time, ‘When I saw my mother teaching Majella how to make pancakes, I knew she was ready to let go.'