Chapter 13 - WHAT HAPPENED TO HELEN
My mother was never arrested in dramatic fashion.
There were no handcuffs outside church.
No cameras.
No public spectacle.
Daniel and I reviewed the finances with an attorney.
Some transfers were legally questionable.
Others were merely selfish.
We required Helen to return funds transferred without Dad’s authorization into the estate.
She eventually agreed rather than fight publicly.
She moved out of the house six months later.
Daniel bought her a smaller condominium using only money that unquestionably belonged to her.
I did not speak to her for almost a year.
Then one Sunday she called.
“I was cruel to you.”
No excuse.
No “but.”
I waited.
“I was angry that your father could love you from across the ocean while I was changing his sheets.”
I closed my eyes.
“I needed help, Rebecca.”
“You could have asked.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you?”
A long silence.
“Because if I asked, then I wasn’t the strong one.”
That sounded like my mother.
Finally.
Not the villain in church.
Not the martyr she had invented.
A frightened woman who turned exhaustion into punishment.
“I can understand why you broke,” I said.
She began crying.
“But I can’t pretend you didn’t break things around you.”
“I know.”
Forgiveness did not arrive that day.
May you like
But truth did.
Sometimes that comes first.
