A Woman Of Substance Poem by Paula Glynn

Emma Harte a tough and smart young girl
Working for the Fairley family and legacy
Emma to create a 20th century legacy herself
The later years of adolescence and adulthood
Both kind and cruel in equal measure:

Kind life brought sensual lovers
Lovers that brought passion and desire
Lovers that lasted longterm though lost sadly
Lovers that created both cherished children
And children that were part of vicious treachery.

Emma's beautiful mother Elizabeth to sadly die
In Emma's innocent but fighting young girl days
Emma to turn away from the god that let her mother die
And to turn to money, ambition and power
Swearing revenge on the sexy but naive Edwin Fairley.

Father Jack Harte to teach clever toughness
To his daughter Emma: her hard approach to life
To protect her from abuse in others
Jack a big and strong man that is dominant
Unfortunately to die after saving Edwin Fairley from a fire.

The attractive teenage boy that made Emma pregnant
And left her to trudge alone in the mud
Emma running away to alien Leeds
Emma to slowly build her plans step-by-step
And money, ambition and power succeed.

Building her Harte retail empire from shopwork
Business after business in her iron grip
Incredible power for a woman of substance
A woman bearing a number of children
From both love and difficultly accidentally.

A wise and clever 79-year-old woman of great beauty
Changing her assets, businesses and will
To get revenge on those who underestimated her
Her greedy, vain and selfish family
Her treasured daughter Edwina sadly with those traits.

But there is such a thing as fate
Edwina still cared for in spite of a difficult relationship
With her mother Emma: Edwina feeling resentful and abandoned
By a mother that was never there and too busy working
Freda looking after Edwina in her childhood instead.

Emma's heart broken by her daughter's betrayal
A rift that lasts throughout a lifetime
But grandchildren bring joy with Daisy and her daughter Paula
Two relatives that make the sun shine in the morning
The days spent in business treasured and far from boring.

Emma learning as an experienced old woman
The ultimate lesson being how to endure:
Life in the Yorkshire countryside as a young girl
Successfully navigating life, children and business
Emma Harte an old heroine and learning from mistakes.