Mom's Background (as I know it)

My mom was born in Bolivia, her mother hated her on sight. Why? Because my mom is blue-eyed, has light brown hair and white skin...her younger and only sister/sibling was born with darkish skin, dark hair and brown eyes....I think in the eyes of my Grandmother, my mom was some sort of freak.

My Grandmother was pissed that her husband was laying with women when he was away on his plantation for a few days at a time, so they separated when my mom was young. I recall my mother telling me of how Grandfather took her by the hand and led her away. In my mind's eye I can see this young girl, frightened and wondering when she would see her mom and sister again.

My Grandfather put my mom in a convent, in Switzerland I believe. This is where my mom basically grew up, surrounded my nuns who were as bitter as 5-day old coffee. My mom told me a little of her um, 'rebellious' stage (if you can call doing anything naughty in a convent, rebellious). Apparently everyday the nuns would take my mom and other girls on a walk, and my mom and her friends would pick up cigarette butts and puff on them behind the nuns back. I guess what I'm saying is that my mom really never got to sew her wild oats.

Eventually mom was able to leave the convent. Now, this is where what I know of her gets a little scattered, and I'll most likely be wrong with how the events took place. I believe my mom went to Italy for a short while to work as a secretary. This did not last long as my Grandfather swooped in and took my mom to England.

This is where my dad comes into the picture.

But first, my mom's dad owned a nut plantation and my dad's dad did something (I believe) to do with import/export...the result is that both of these men were instrumental in building roads so that the nuts could be transported. Again, I'm not entirely sure how accurate all this is.

My Grandfather took my mom to my Grandpa's home in England with instructions to drop my mom off at the new convent somewhere. My Grandpa drove my mom to the convent and then turned right around and brought her back to his home. My Grandpa said that the place looked horrible, and that is was no place for anyone to live.

Enter my dad. Picture a young English lad of 18, still a virgin. My dad is not handsome, but he has great expressive facial features and a helluva humour, you decide if it's good or bad humour. Now if you know anything about Brits is that they love warm ale and any talk that relates to bathroom audio noises etc...okay, I digress.

I'm thinking I will do a short blog on my dad in the days, months to come.

So there is my mom staying with my Grandpa (and I presume my Grandma) and my dad comes home from boarding school to find my mom there. The long and the short of it is my dad fell in love with my mom, his one and only great love of his life. My mom was not a virgin when her and dad hooked up for the first time and she became pregnant with me....so in the end they married.

Believe it or not, it's only been in the last 5 or so years that I knew my mom was preggers with me when she married dad....and if I remember correctly, it was a Justice of the Peace wedding. Anyway, there was a picture I used to have to dust, it was a black and white picture of my mom and dad's wedding day, and I'm not sure anyone in the picture was smiling. They married in December and I was born in June.

We will end here for now.

Peace,
Sam U. Elle