Chapter 11: A story untold
Yesterday, I had a long phone call with my cousin. She is my mothers sisters daughter. We spoke about many things. We caught up with each other. We vented. We laughed. I spoke to her sons...They're all grown up now. I used to babysit them, just like she used to babysit me. My cousin is almost 20 years my senior and she knew a lot more about our family than I could have ever known. During our conversation, I asked her some questions about my family that my mother could not fully explain to me growing up. Growing up, my mother never really spoke about her parents or what it was like growing up in a poor household. She told me stories about how she failed grade 1 because of family circumstances. She told me how small the house was that she grew up in. She told about the, sometimes, more than 10 people she had to cook for when she only 10 or 13 years old. She told about her becoming a door-to-door sales lady when she was a teenager. She told me about when she was probably 5 or 6 years ...