<<<Sometime, if you want, I'll tell you about the woman I found who was willing to learn the dance, the music, and the poetry I lived by. And who got good enough at it to take the lead before I realized I was suddenly following. >>>
Is now a good time to tell it? Or did you, in fact, end up telling the story, in this post? Is there more you can tell?
I don't know whether the woman who used to say "Blink once for yes, twice for no," to her therapist ever found anyone. She was my sister's friend more than mine, and we lost track. But here's another story about her. I'll call her Susan.
Susan was a tall, thin, striking blond, and her family looked nothing like her-- all dark and stockily built, short. None of them had been to college, and the family had contempt for books and formal education. Susan had worked her way though school with no encouragement.
After they became close friends, Susan told my sister that she had been adopted. She was trying to find her birth mother.
She eventually learned that her adoptive parents had found her through a local doctor, who had agreed to find a home for her when she was born to a patient of his, an unmarried girl, the daughter of a prominent family.
There was more research, and Susan managed to figure out who the family must be, and that she had several siblings, or half-siblings, and that her mother had eventually become a doctor.
She did not contact the family, out of fear. She felt that they were "better" than she. After a couple of years, Susan called my sister up and told her that her biological mother had died of cancer. She had read this in the obituaries. She had never gotten up the courage to make herself known. She was very emotional, and she wanted to go to the funeral, if my sister would go with her.
So my sister went, of course. She said it was the strangest thing. There was this big family, including brothers and sisters, all younger than Susan... and they all looked just like Susan. My sister couldn't believe they didn't notice this person in the pew who was tall like them, and blond, and thin, and had the same facial structure, the same features, the same blue eyes.
Susan did not make herself known to the family. She felt she had lost her chance when her mother died. She was afraid they would think she wanted to claim a share of the estate. And she remained fearful that they would look down on her as "low class."
In the meantime, she had become completely estranged from her adoptive family.
As a postscript, the reason for my sister's and Susan's estrangement is that Susan slept with my sister's husband. There was a lot of that going around, and after the divorce, my sister and Susan attempted to repair the friendship, but it wasn't the same, somehow. |
