I just want to tell you a little bit about some of the members of my family. Some of them have passed away and some of them are still around but whatever the case may be, they are all loved and hold a special place in my heart.
I want to start with my dad. The reason I am starting with him is because he has been the center of my life since I was a little girl. My first memories of him were when I was probably somewhere around two or three years old. I can remember crying and him picking me up from my crib and carrying me while singing “Rock-a-bye my baby with a Dixie melody”. This is probably my earliest memory. While I haven’t lived with my dad since I was four years old, I have always been in touch with him. The greatest gift that my dad has ever given me is the encouragement to try to do anything that I have ever thought about doing. No matter how crazy or far fetched it was, he would always say “Go for it” you never know if it will work for you if you don’t try.
On the flip side, the one thing that my dad took away from me that I wish he hadn’t, was to alienate me from my mother. From the time he got custody of me at the age of seven he always told me that my mother didn’t love me and wanted nothing to do with me. He did everything he could to keep her from contacting me. At eighteen, I spent one day with her. When he found out he threatened to disown me if I ever spoke with her again. I never did and she died several years later.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any real memories of my mother, good or bad. I did spend a day with her when I was eighteen years old but my memories of that day are minimal. I know that I was probably on the defensive because all that I knew about my mother was what my father had told me. All of it was negative. I’m sorry that I never got to know her because I never got to hear her side of the story concerning my dad and her. In my early forties I reconnected with my older half-brother Richard and he passed on to me some of the things that my mother had kept that had belonged to me like a baby shoe, baby spoon and some pictures. For the first time in my life I had the sense that my mother did have love for me.
I had just turned two when my little brother Bobby was born. I spent all of my childhood with my brother Bobby. He was with me when I was taken from my mother and he lived with me in all of the foster homes and the children’s home. We are still close even though he lives in the suburbs of Boston. Bob is a successful businessman who is happily married to Pamela. They have a new baby, Jacob. Bob has two grown children, Christy and Michael from a previous marriage.
I hadn’t had any contact with my older half-brother Richard for more than thirty years. When my dad got custody of Bobby and I, Richard stayed with my mother. She remarried and had two more children, Judy and Nancy. I reconnected with Richard and got to know both Judy and Nancy when I attended a family reunion of my mother’s side of the family. I was in my early forties at the time. My sister Nancy passed away a few years later but I am glad that I had the opportunity to get to know her a little. She left behind her husband Bill, and four children, Helen, Tyler, Jacob and Jessica. Judy lives in Pennsylvania and is happily married to Andy and they have two children named Matthew and Hillary. Richard is happily married to Marcia. They have two grown children, Chris and Kerrie. Their daughter Kerrie is married to Christopher and they have two children, Brandon and Lexi.
Even though I didn’t grow up with my family and I don’t live geographically close to any of them, I still feel fortunate to be able to stay in touch with them.
