"I always thought you had a tragic life." - Fran
My cousins were very close to her family, and I always felt like an outsider. Oh, I was close with my cousins, but I wanted to be close to the people they were close to, too. Seems that she knew all about me, though. At the cemetery, waiting for my aunt's funeral procession to arrive, was the first chance I'd ever had to talk with her much, or any member of her family. I was glad for the opportunity to finally have a bit of connection with these ones who were so dear to my aunt and cousins. But she knew I was Shirley's son, knew about when and how my dad had died, about his alcoholism, and did not seem surprised when I mentioned that he wasn't my biodad.
And she's right, I did have, in multiple ways, a tragic childhood. It didn't seem that way to me at the time, especially, except maybe for when my dad died. That's how childhood is: whatever you experience is what you think of as normal. In retrospect, mine definitely wasn't, and I'm glad to know that now and to have dealt with it. I'm a better person for it.
Funny thing is, Fran doesn't know nearly the worst of it.
Great thing is, God has already made something far better than tragedy out of it, and there's an eternity more to come.
