I drove through the acres of pinetree forests, to the well-manicured blueberry farm.
Martha, my dear aunt, ready with an embrace.
She holds the key to so much of my family history, the door is locked tightly.
But she freely opens it to share.
My great grandfather, genius, but emotionally unstable.
Took apart a car, with his daughter Blanche, they left it on the front porch while he took a trip
to the State hospital for treatment.
Came home and put it back together.
What kind of treatment? Medication? Electric shock therapy?
Was electricity even brought to that area at that time?
Information about my grandfather, one I never knew.
He could be mean. A mean drunk.
And beat his boys.
That didn't surprise me.
But what I did learn was that my grandmother basically died inside, the day he died.
She pretty much ceased to function.
Got addicted to pain killers.
She loved that man, through his alcoholism, his meanness, he was her love.
Funny how people will continue to see what 'was' instead of what 'is'...
and love the memory, as if that will bring the 'was' back to life.
Martha said she learned more family history the day of her husband's funeral than she'd known her whole married life.
Aunt Melba told about how she took a knife from her daddy, he was chasing her mamma with it in his hand.
That's why Aunt Melba married and never looked back.
Aunt Faye. She married a mean one too. Had two boys with him. Then divorced him and moved to California with his sisters. Just piled in a car with two young boys, her ex-husbands sisters, and drove west.
They say the best way to get over a trauma is to leave the site.
She left alright. Miles and miles between her and the mean ex-husband.
Brave woman she was.
Martha, my dear aunt, ready with an embrace.
She holds the key to so much of my family history, the door is locked tightly.
But she freely opens it to share.
My great grandfather, genius, but emotionally unstable.
Took apart a car, with his daughter Blanche, they left it on the front porch while he took a trip
to the State hospital for treatment.
Came home and put it back together.
What kind of treatment? Medication? Electric shock therapy?
Was electricity even brought to that area at that time?
Information about my grandfather, one I never knew.
He could be mean. A mean drunk.
And beat his boys.
That didn't surprise me.
But what I did learn was that my grandmother basically died inside, the day he died.
She pretty much ceased to function.
Got addicted to pain killers.
She loved that man, through his alcoholism, his meanness, he was her love.
Funny how people will continue to see what 'was' instead of what 'is'...
and love the memory, as if that will bring the 'was' back to life.
Martha said she learned more family history the day of her husband's funeral than she'd known her whole married life.
Aunt Melba told about how she took a knife from her daddy, he was chasing her mamma with it in his hand.
That's why Aunt Melba married and never looked back.
Aunt Faye. She married a mean one too. Had two boys with him. Then divorced him and moved to California with his sisters. Just piled in a car with two young boys, her ex-husbands sisters, and drove west.
They say the best way to get over a trauma is to leave the site.
She left alright. Miles and miles between her and the mean ex-husband.
Brave woman she was.
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