The Ballad of Katie: Somewhere Under Heaven Series

Seasons of Change

Casey's POV

Things have been good, I think. I just got doctorate number three which this time it's going back to where it all started because I joined my students in crossing the stage as a graduate of Rider University...again. When I became dean of the school of liberal arts, Kali who became the dean of First Year Students dared me to go for a doctorate in education and needless to say it was tough but I managed to finish it so yeah, I'm now Casey L. Pattinson, Ph.D, D.Ed. 

I was also elected to the New Jersey State Legislature which is really cool. It was one of my former students who got me to run and he was my campaign manager. Needless to say Mighty Casey won by a landslide and of course at my swearing in, we had the whole family as well as our foster son Jaxon which was nice and it was really one of the highlights of a rather rocky year for us. 

I also got a bombshell thrown on me which was my father was married once before. He divorced his first wife who would later become my aunt Nora (she married Uncle Colin) just before he came to America. Okay, I know what you're saying, "Casey, divorce wasn't legal in Ireland until the mid 90s." 

Who said anything about living in Ireland at the time? My dad and uncle Colin are actually English. Yeah, I was shocked too but remember how I said my grandmother was from Sheffield? Well, she went back to England during the war to help out and had an affair with an English soldier and got pregnant. Well, my dad decided after a few years of living in Ireland, he would move to London and that's when he married Nora. They also had twins, Mary-Louise and Eric but what no one knew was that Nora was pregnant at the time she and my dad divorced and that's how Gearoid came into the world. 

Nora met my uncle Colin at the time and they got married only to have Gearoid who we all call Gerry passed off as his kid. Since Uncle Colin also couldn't have kids of his own due to a cancer treatment he went through and my asshole step-grandfather wanted him to have kids without adopting, Dad ended up becoming a donor if you will and that's how he ended up with Rory, Siobhan, Piper, and John-Michael. So yeah, I have a few siblings. Also, what is it with the Irish and large families? I mean, in the US, it's 3.1 kids (although you hear a lot about 2.5 kids) and in England it's about the same although most families only have maybe one or two (my husband's the oddball it seems since he's the youngest of three) but a stereotypical Irish Catholic family is massive. I heard my dad had a friend who had 12 siblings! God, I hope one of them is not wandering the Pinebarrens because right now, I'm having flashbacks to the story of the Jersey Devil.

But all of the kids now live in the US except for two Piper died of the same cancer that Nora had and John-Michael lives in London. Eric and Mary-Louise live near me as does Rory and Gerry. Rory has been working with us on a lot of things related to the studio and Gerry is now running things with Kelly Brothers Properties which we all have a stake in as does my husband since Uncle Colin gave Rob a stock option in Kelly Brothers as a wedding gift. 

Then there's our family and the ups and downs. For the last five years, we have fostered this really awesome kid named Jaxon who came into our lives through Ashton who met him through soccer. Jax as we call him is closer to Katie's age (well, about a year younger) and we became his closest allies because as I found out, he's been abused a lot at home.

Jaxon was born to a black mother, had a Cuban stepfather, and lived in a nice neighborhood but it was nothing like where we lived. His father was in construction and his mother was a teacher until she gave birth to her oldest, a daughter named Yvonne. Yvonne died a couple years ago which started the downward spiral with the end result being this sweet 13 year old boy having a lot of heartbreak. 

We took him in as a favor to his mother who we were very close with and one afternoon I'm at work when I get a call from Rob with a bombshell that will lead to us becoming the parents of three.