Due to the nature of the posting structure, the order of the days will end up reversed; the first day was posted on 10/29, and all subsequent posts will be added later, but appear before (Huh??) Anyway, you have to go to the bottom of the pile to start at the beginning.
DAY TWO; MAY 6, 1962
DAY TWO; MAY 6, 1962
The next morning I was still in a fog. Then I remembered that it had been only when I heard the word “telegram” that my somewhat baffled brain began to react, and the first thing somewhat coherent muttering that came out of my mouth had been “WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?” My mother was crying, my grandfather was waving this yellow piece of paper around and I had been about ready to go ballistic. Not exactly the picture of pastoral calm and beauty.
All of the sudden, as I lay in bed, events in my recent life began to flash in my mind. The Christmas dinner in December, when my grandparents had gone all out in order to get all the goodies that we had used to, normally, have in these celebrations; a trip on which my grandfather had taken me in late February, visiting many areas and revisiting some. It had then been described as a “nostalgia” trip. It was really more of a “look at all these places and get them imbedded in our mind” kind of trip; then, my birthday celebration last September, my 15th birthday. A huge, and unusual, surprise party where all my friends had been invited and where all the members of my family (even those not talking to each other) were present. Little issues and telling events which when looking back, could be thought off as a long goodbye in the making. The adults knew what was going on; the only ones who did not know a thing were the two who would be leaving.
-“I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE” was the thing that continued to come out of my mouth. “I don’t know anyone up there” as I continued to react to the information that had been handed to me. As in: “Hi and, by the way, you are leaving and we may not see each other ever again but, don’t worry”
I realize it’s petty of me to say the above but only now, after many years and after four children of my own, do I really begin to understand the immense and loving sacrifice these two people (as well as my grandmother who, with her infinite patience, had been a surrogate mother to me) were making at the time. I was only fifteen years old then, and my main concern at that point had been limited to doing my best to be in the good graces of a very pretty young lady I had met some three weeks before.
I know these were not deep thoughts and worries but, hey! … I did say I was 15, right?
As off that moment, my life went into a spin and I’m not sure it has stopped some 47 years later. How much of my current situation is due to that original spin? I really don’t know; and probably never really will. Still, I refused to acknowledge what my ears had heard. It could not be!! My life, as I knew it, was coming to an end.
-“Who will be there?” I asked; - “How can you send us by ourselves?” “Where are we going to live?”… “How are we going to make it?”…. There were too many questions and too few answers. My grandfather, God rest his soul, was as unsettled as I had ever seen him be.
-“Don’t worry too much, he said”, I have arranged for a friend, Mr. Herbert, to visit with you after you are settled.
-“Settled WHERE? I shrieked, not really caring who may be listening.
I had heard all kind of stories from people who had already gone on to the US. The jury was out as to what kind of a move this would be. Most definitely, a life would end and a new one begin. Only, no one whom I knew and loved as “my family” would be a part of this new life.
Talk about a life change… in a matter of 15 minutes I went from being a typical, cocky 15 year old, to being a scared kid.
Scared out of my wits, and with nowhere to hide.
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