Introducing my father to my brother...

 

 

"Would you introduce me to Jimmy?" my brother J asked. I was still in bed in Boston. He was in NH. It had been 20+ years since he had seen my father.

I called Jimmy in Florida. He didn't hesitate. "Tell me when to pick you up at the airport."

My parents' divorce was a blessing. Their relationship was volatile, never physically abusive but vocally so. I compare them being together as a room of TNT and hundreds of lit matches waiting to connect.

My father had stopped seeing us when my mother had him served for more child support during a visitation. Right or wrong, that was the way it was. 

Many years later he showed up at my university, encouraged by my stepmother Norma to risk rejection against the possibility of restoring our relationship. He wasn't rejected and we established a relationship that was textbook perfect.

The tension at Sarasota airport was immediately dissipated by my loving stepmother. My brother accepted their direction to feel at home. They lived in a mobile home seniors community. Their backyard led to a lake. At dusk birds gathered on the grass and one by one, as if they had an air controller in charge, they flew to trees on an island in the middle of the lake, high above the residing alligator.

My Aunt Alma and Uncle Pat met the prodigal son and went with us to the Elks, where they had a membership, for dinner. A woman had a mini fan to keep smoke away from her. We talked and laughed and talked and laughed.

J confessed to me he adored our stepmom and was nothing like the cheap, ignorant tramp my mother had described.

Our last night when my stepmom had gone to bed, the three of us talked long into the night. I learned new things about my dad. My brother had a lot more to learn about that side of the family. I couldn't have gone to bed even if I had wanted to. My brother had been given the guest bedroom and I slept on the couch, not a hardship. It saved me from hearing my father's snores through the wall, a sacrifice well worth being with him.

Hugs of farewell were at the airport. I had hoped that it would start a relationship between my brother and dad. It didn't. The only time he contacted them was to send flowers when Jimmy died. He missed knowing wonderful people.

Note: I am planning to post the next two chapters of Lexington: Anatomy of a novel tomorrow.