Where the Tracks Go

At age seventy-five, Ann had lived a comfortable adult life. She had married a hardworking dependable man who had a kind and loving nature. Her husband had died, but her three children were always there for her.  There was her son Matthew, and her daughters Lacie and Mikayla to care for and love her. Her children had set her up in an independent living apartment. Ann was there alone most of the time.  To pass the time, Lacie and Mikayla bring her some of her old photos and scrapbooking materials.  Ann decides to start putting her memories down in writing in the form of a scrapbook while she can still recall them. Each day her grandson, Davey comes to visit her and each day she shares with him the new pages of her scrapbook.  He hangs on her every word when she tells him her story.  While Ann reflects on memories of her childhood, he shakes his head in disbelief. He is unable to relate to such a hard childhood.  She has many memories to share.  Some good, some bad, some ugly.  Ann recalls the confusion that came from her parents’ separation. Her mother had taken June and Eddie leaving her and Raelyn with their father. Her father did what he thought best and let Ann live with her Great Aunt Flora and let Raelyn to live with her Great Aunt Mae. She remembered with fondness, the love her Great Aunt Flora's family had shown her.  The confusion she felt at the introduction to her "real" father and then to her "real" family.  The pain she felt being pulled away from the only family she had ever loved to go live with her “real” family. She evaluates her relationship with each family member and how it had grown over the years. How they had depended on each other over the years. The good years and the bad years. The forgiveness given to her parents once she was old enough to understand that grown-ups and parents are not perfect and that they make mistakes just like everyone else. If nothing else, Ann wants her children, grandchildren, and her great grandchildren to know about her past and what she went through as a child.  She wants them to understand how she became the person she was.  When all is said and done, she wants them to look back and know that she was a fighter.  She was a strong person that loved her family deeply.  She wanted to die loved and with a heart full of forgiveness for things no child should have to experience.