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Postscript, "Returning to Hoolahan's Flats with Audrey Keyes," Hoolahan's Flat, Oxford Avenue by Stephen Morrissey

The complete text of Stephen Morrissey's Hoolahan's Flat, Oxford Avenue can be read at Coracle Press.

Audrey Keyes was my first friend, from age four to thirteen years. She lived next door to us, in a lower flat equivalent to our own, at Hoolahan's flats. For many years, when we were children, Audrey and I played together everyday. I remember standing at Audrey's front door and asking Mrs. Keyes, "Can Audrey come out to play?" I remember playing at Audrey's home, it was always "let's pretend" and then we entered a world of imagination and make-believe.

During the years after we moved from Oxford Avenue in 1963, to a few months ago, I had often thought of Audrey Keyes but I never expected to hear from her and I had no idea of how to contact her. Indeed, she had assumed an almost mythical proportion in my memory of Oxford Avenue. Over the years I heard rumours about Audrey—that she had moved to Australia and become an actor—but nothing was certain.

So it was quite a surprise to receive an e-mail from Audrey last summer; she had read my poem on-line about growing up in the 1950s and living at "Hoolahan's Flat, Oxford Avenue". By coincidence, she was in Montreal at the time visiting her mother, and we met a week later at the St. Viateur Restaurant in the Monkland Village, near where we lived as children.

There was much to catch up on. It was true that she lived in Australia. She had moved there around 1968 and had performed in the Australian production of the musical "Hair". Audrey now called herself "Veeto", a Sanskrit name given to her by the famous (or infamous) Indian guru, Rajneesh. She had lived in ashrams in India and Oregon and for many years she had lived in Australia where she had married and had two children and a grandchild. Her life there was "bigger than life"; for instance, she had stories of her adventures riding a horse in the outback with one of her children, of travel and living in different countries.

I also learned that Veeto has an incredible memory for detail, for the names of our former neighbours, what people said, and things that I had either forgotten or never knew. She is a record-keeper, someone who gave me a glimpse into the past as seen by a friend. She remembered the day of my father's funeral in 1956. She recounted how she saw me return home and had asked her mother if I could come over to play. Her mother told her that this was not a good time for play. There are other memories that we shared, most were happy but a few were quite disturbing. In fact, I was disturbed for days after hearing that the cruelty of some people she and I knew as children was not youthful acting-up on their part, as I had excused it, but was something that was reveled in by them for months after.

A week after our first meeting, I visited Veeto and her mother. At age ninety-five, Mrs. Keyes has lived at the Manoir Westmount retirement home for several years. A few days later Audrey's brother, Bobby Keyes sent Veeto the photographs that are attached below. The photographs are of us, as children, taken in the spring of 1957, in the lane behind our Oxford Avenue flats, perhaps six months after my father's death. Other photos below are from last summer's meeting with Veeto. They were taken during our reunion when we returned to Hoolahan's flats. We sat on the back steps after finding our initials, carved into the wooden stairs so long ago. Then we took photographs at the front of the flats and we recounted some of the first memories of our lives.

There is a special connection of the soul that exists with one's childhood friends. These first friends were present in one's early formative years, they knew one's parents and siblings and can discuss one's early life with a knowledge that is limited to very few people. They are like brothers and sisters to us and are a witness to what we experienced when we were children. If I am a poet of witness, then Veeto is my witness to those early years. Meeting Veeto was like meeting someone I had both never met before and someone who knew aspects of my life unknown by anyone else.

I have made the shift to thinking of Audrey as "Veeto", which was difficult at first. Those days of our youth are over for both of us, we have made new lives, and now we have met again and completed a part of the life journey that was begun so many years ago. This was a special meeting for both of us. She is a dear friend from my childhood, a reminder of the good people I knew as a child. I don't know if Veeto and I will meet again, the distance between Canada and Australia suggests it is not likely to happen. Meeting for a few days in the summer of 2005 may be the last time we will see each other, but they were special days and I will remember Veeto with great fondness and affection.

Stephen Morrissey
March 2006

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Copyright © 2007 The author

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