There's Life in Dear Ole Dad

It's really no big deal when you hear about your dad, age 87, has been married to wife number 2 for 38 years. Congrats, Pop. But It's really a jaw dropper when it turns out that he's been living with Mom until she died 3 years ago of a stroke, bless her heart. And nobody knew about wife #2. Nobody knew that mom and dad were split up. It's been just mom and dad as far back as anyone could tell. I guess the pieces are falling together......Dad's long absences in SoCal on "business"......monkey business. Strange, vague reasons why he had to run off to Socal on some imagined business deals.....on Christmas Eve, or Thanksgiving. Of course, he was entertaining Japanese businessmen on those holiday eves because "they" don't celebrate American Holidays.....and he had to be there to grease the wheels of International Business Relations. That makes sense....if you hear it enough times. Oh, then there's the issue of where all of the money was disappearing to over the years. Poor mom worked herself to the bone to keep her tiny travel agency open....only to have the meager, little funds that were in the checking account be raided and used for.....you guessed it, secret wife #2. It DOES get expensive keeping up two households, not to mention the commuting bills, rent or mortgage payments, etc. Maybe that's the reason poor mom was being foreclosed on a few years back because of unpaid bills. Maybe that's why she was wearing the same old tattered clothes and shoes. Maybe that's why she was always stressed, anxious, and prematurely aged. They call that something. I can't remember the term. you know, when you reinforce a bad behavior in someone by not putting your foot down. Like giving lunch money to a kid you KNOW will turn around and spend it on cigarettes or a joint. That was mom: The long suffering, quiet mom. I am guilty of that accommodating behavior, too. Lending money to dad for a short term loans that never seem to get paid back, retrieving the home from bankruptcy, ad nauseum. I don't even want to mention what's happened to my poor older sister when dad has tapped her on the shoulder.

Anyway, that's the National Enquirer segment from our family this week.....