Her wonderland village
CHRISTMAS is bitter-sweet for bestselling author, Alice Taylor, whose latest book, the intimate And Time Stood Still, is about the people she has loved and lost. In the book, Taylor, 74, recalls her younger brother, Connie, who died after a short illness when he was a child, and her husband, Gabriel Murphy, who died in Nov 2005. While this calm, white-haired mother of five adult children, and grandmother of six, has grieved, she is philosophical. And Time Stood Still has a home-spun wisdom on life and loss.
“I think heaven comes very close to Earth at Christmas,” says Alice, who lives in Innishannon. “There is great peace. I’d say to anyone, who finds Christmas tough, to go for a walk on Christmas Eve and get away from the supermarkets and the shopping malls. Peace will come to you. But it won’t come if you’re in a rackety situation. There’s healing in peace and quiet.”
