I knew little of the story; I didn’t even know this much when I was young.
And then I heard more. The story told by the younger sister, about how much she adored her older brothers. About how her oldest brother paid for her piano lessons when her parents couldn’t afford to. About how he helped her and her fiancé buy a car. About how much he did for their parents, helping with projects and the upkeep of their house. Then about how he married a Canadian girl when he was 31, and hardly ever came home again. I had heard that story, but it was a different version. It was the story of the Canadian girl who was not welcome in her fiancé’s home, because she was Canadian, because she came from a “broken home,” because she wasn’t good enough. He and the Canadian girl moved to Niagara Falls, had a daughter, then to Oswego and had another. He didn’t see his family much after that, and as the girls grew up, they were told that his family didn’t want to see them. They heard that his sister and her husband thought “they are better than us; they don’t want anything to do with us.” And because the story came from the girls’ mother, of course they believed it. They didn’t hear the story about the early lives of the two young boys; they never heard the story about the piano lessons or the car or other acts of loyalty. These were stories about a man they never knew, and not the man they recognized as their father. Not the man who yelled more than spoke, who had no patience with any one in his home. The man who didn’t care who he hurt. What happened to that man?
1 Comment
Sherry Allred
7/8/2014 03:58:20 am
I just discovered your blog and read your stories. They are really good Sema. Will you do more? I hope so!
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AuthorI was born in Oswego, NY, "I had always wanted to be a writer, but was impeded by the belief that to be a writer one had to be extraordinary, and I knew I wasn't. By the time I was ready to give up my academic career I had realized that while books are extraordinary, writers themselves are no more or less special than anyone else." The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield Archives
March 2024
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