Swimming (treading water) with a Monolith
(suggested music – To a Child by Laura Nyro:
“Silent lies never give you what you need”)
My Father was from a large family, most of the children with tragic or sad endings. I only ever met his two older sisters, my Aunts Dorothy and Marie. I am tempted to write Marie with small letters and Dorothy with some kind of special recognition. I came to love Dorothy and hate marie. First, the other children, some of whom I no idea of names. One brother of my father’s drowned as a child, one brother disappeared to the merchant marines and was never seen again, Uncle William lived in the US but we never saw him and lost track after me Father died, one sister was an alcoholic and died of cirrhosis of the liver. I think there were more children but only my Father (Daddy) and my Mom would remember and they are dead.
Daddy was very close to Dorothy and marie. Marie was many things including an antique dealer in Montreal. Mostly she just got married a lot. Her only long-term husband was Charlie Day. I have no idea what he did. They had one son Douglas who was my only first cousin. He was killed in WWII so I never met him. I believe that this event sent marie over the edge into severe manipulation, though well hidden. Dorothy married a lawyer in NYC, Carl. They never had children. Carl was just graduated from law school and took a job (his only job) with a company called AT&T which had just started. They could not afford to pay him so he received half salary and half stock. When the stock went through the roof, they retired to a very large house in Connecticut in the same where Letterman and Martha Stewart now live. He had 3 activities: golf, watching the Yankees win World Series (8 out of 10 in the 1950s), and driving his Thunderbird which he replaced every year. My family would visit often on long weekends and such. I was the only one interested in baseball so Uncle Carl treated me very well, always giving me rides in his Thunderbird sports cars. My Aunt only did one thing – play professional bridge. For years they travelled and he played golf while she played bridge. She eventually became a Grand Master of Bridge with 100 Master points. For those who do not know, this is very difficult to do as you need to be one of the best in the world. Winning a major championship would only give one maybe ¼ or ½ Master point. She taught me to play when I was 8 and always insisted that I be her partner. It was a great way to learn to play slams. Sadly I now never play. She loved me a great deal and I loved her.
Meanwhile, aunt marie was busy marrying rich, old guys. I think 7 or 8 of them. She would inherit huge amounts of money when they died. The ones I knew of were nuts. One insisted on using his hand gun for target practice in their home. One owned swamp land in Florida (honest) til Disney bought the land for 1 million dollars, which at the time was a lot of money. He went to Vegas and lost it all very quickly. Another one was smarter and told her to sell everything and buy gold at $35 an ounce. Within months It was at $300 an ounce after deregulation of the price. So she was busy and also very wealthy.
Now in the midst of most of this, my Father died one night of a heart attack when I was 11. Just a short time before the Cuban Missile crisis and the assassination of President Kennedy. My Father’s death changed and still changes my life forever. Our visits to NYC stopped but my Mother stayed close to both Aunts but mostly Dorothy. Uncle Carl was never very well and eventually died as well. Dorothy decided to move to a condo in Florida. Marie quickly followed. She was in between husbands or had temporarily run out. As Dorothy’s health slowly faded, 3 important things happened. First myself and my sister and brother became sole heirs, my mother became a frequent winter visitor to Florida and marie moved into the same condo complex. She told Dorothy that she would only care for her if she signed the AT&T stock over to her. This stock of course was the Monolith for me as I stood to inherit a large amount of money. My Mother even told me to be careful with girl friends as I going to be rich. However, with the Monolith now in marie’s grimy hands, I spent time praying for Dorothy’s good health and for marie to continue to be mean to Dorothy. She gave her very little care as Dorothy had a regular maid and the 2 Aunts eat out every meal – except they would go for the early bird specials and save something for dinner…and yes both were very rich.
Eventually the inevitable happened. Marie met a new man and got married. This time however, he was the gold digger. Dorothy hated him and Marie and the asshole moved to California. Meanwhile my Mother was visiting Dorothy regularly, and was gently looking after our interests. Dorothy insisted that marie had violated the agreement and she wanted the Monolith back. My Mother became executor for Dorothy’s will. Marie agreed to send back the stock. My Mother went home. A few days later Dorothy (bless her sole) died in her sleep.
Mother and marie both went back to Florida with marie arriving first. When my Mother arrived, marie expressed ‘disappointment’ at not knowing where the jewelry was hidden. My Mother was the only one knowing the hiding place and feeling sympathy for poor marie who was not in the will, gave her some of the best jewelry even though marie owned and wore a diamond ring worth more than 100 grand. Then a few days later Dorothy’s lawyer informed my Mother that the AT&T stock was missing. Most of the Estate. For some reason my Mother phoned me to ask what to do. It was obvious that marie still had it. I foolishly said to confront her in a gentle manner. Marie told her that the stock had been in the mail when Dorothy died. She had her husband (remember the gold digging asshole) to secretly pick up the mail while they were there. He committed mail fraud as he signed for the registered mail. They immediately packed and left for California. My Mother told her that my Father would have been very upset by her actions. She ignored her and never spoke to her again, ever. The Monolith had left the building and my life.