Mary Muriel Hall (nee Burns) was raised in a humble four-room house in Ennis, Ireland, In the 1940s. In this touching memoir, she vividly recalls her harrowing-yet often humorous-childhood. Muriel became familiar with adversity at an unusually young age. In this book, she remembers family life as a toddler with an abusive, alcoholic father and shares stories of a childhood marked by the tumultuous relationship of her mam and dad. Muriel recalls with special fondness her grandfather, who becomes the lone beacon of hope in her increasingly turbulent life. She recounts the sudden death of her father, a loss that combined intense sadness with an odd sense of family relief. She remembers the family move to England that allowed her to shed the negativity which surrounded her childhood, she started to look to a brighter future with mixed emotions. Feelings of great highs but also the dread of a different educational system, the meeting of new friends, whilst at the same time trying to bury the past, the same past which led her to pen this book (My Rocky Road & Beyond), accounting the early years in Ennis, Ireland. Circa 1940. The high expectations and hopes for the future. Can this cloud have a silver lining or is it possible that this silver lining is in fact full of clouds. Follow Muriel as she tells in her own words of the struggle to settle and shake the demons and the total disbelief when the unthinkable becomes a reality once again. In all, this is a book that weaves together personal stories to reveal the rich tapestry that was and Irish woman's life.
