My Dad died on November 9th, 1989. I was told that about an hour after he passed a giant rainbow could be seen from my backyard and it was a clear day with no rain. The funeral is foggy to me as well. I know that there was a lot of people there including my entire third grade class. I went to the Catholic school across the street that was associated with the church where the funeral was held, so on that day my whole third grade class got to leave school and attend the mass. Talk about awkward. The school knew what was going on with my family and I was ripped out of school on several occasions in case it was “that time”. The nuns and the teachers were very gracious to me and I’ll never forget their kindness. I remember seeing my dad in the coffin, emaciated, sunken and looking like someone drew on his face with a crayon. I couldn’t believe the man I once looked up to and cuddled with was in this box looking like a different person. I don’t remember anything after the funeral except having to go to my Nana and pops house before the lunch and flicking off one of my cousins and trying to run away. Other than that its like a black hole. Like someone turned the lights off in my head where those memories reside.
My Mom saw the death of my father as a dead end for her and us in PA and since she had two sisters living in Florida, it would be a great opportunity at a new life. What my older brother and I didn’t realize is that we moved closer to her younger sister, Lindsay who was married to an alcoholic and would be the fuel to my mother’s addiction. We moved when my brother and I finished school for the year in the summer of 1990.
My brother and I were excited about moving to Florida. We thought about beaches, palm
trees and an easier life. What we didn’t know was that where we were going was over
an hour from the beach, was more of a swamp land but there were palm trees. Adjusting
to our new life was hard for me. I had a hard time fitting in at my new school, were I
effortlessly had many friends before. I was in the awkward stage between child and
preteen, the years 9-12. We spent a lot of time at my aunt and uncle’s house where parties and drinking were a constant and where my mother met her new boyfriend.
We rented a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house in a nice development. My moms younger sister Lindsay and her husband James lived on a big creek that was called Black Creek. It was only about 15 or 20 minutes away from where we were living but we might as well lived there. It was a nice house but it was on a lot of land that was landscaped so the backyard consisted of dirt that led down to the water where there was a lot of sand. My Aunt and Uncle had two Dalmatians that were good dogs but if you ever had one you know they shed! So the house had a lot of dirt, sand and dog hair everywhere. Uncle James was cool though, at one time he was a professional water skier. So he would take my brother and I out on the boat and teach us how to ski and hydro-slide. The major problem was that my Uncle James was a drinker and the trigger to my mothers pistol that was loaded was about to unload.
Misguided Mommy 