Once she’d calmed down, she told me some things about her that I’d never known. My grandfather was a rep for the Democratic State Convention and a prominent political figure in New Haven. I’d known that, but I hadn’t known that he was a drunk and used to beat all of them when he was on a bender. I also found out that Nanny used to get piss drunk and go down to the club and flash people, throw things and make a general ruckus. She wasn’t the dignified & wholesome woman that she comes off as being! She used to spank the kids and anyone (staff) who said anything against her was fired.

Mom wanted to go to nursing school, as she’d been a candy striper for years at St Raphael’s Hospital, but that was a ‘trade’ rather than an educational opportunity, so she was forced to go to Salve Regina. She didn’t want to be a sociology major – that was chosen for her too. Mom got into trouble in college and was eventually thrown out for breaking curfew. I guess those Catholic schools are strict!

So, she was sent home and had to work as a clerk in her father’s law office. I keep forgetting that D.E.F. isn’t her real father, but rather her step dad. He raised her and was kind, when he was sober. As we’re talking, I’m having flashbacks of when both my mom & dad were drinking and the horrible fights and things that were said. I remember going with them to parties at friend’s houses and being dumped in the bedroom with the coats and told to go to sleep. I remember the screaming and the fight where my father took the drawers out of his desk and threw them at my mother and I. Yeah, we’re all Adult Children. We’ve all got scars.