Nellie was a friend of my
grandmothers and lived about two blocks away from her. The first time I ever
saw Nellie, I was shocked because she could hardly walk. I was all of six
years old and just assumed that Nellie had a husband. Remember asking my
grandmother if she did and was told this story:
"Nellie
had a husband" my grandmother said. "He was a nice man until he did
something really bad." "Really
bad?" I asked her. "Really bad." Being six years old I only knew
some bad things and wasn't prepared for what would come next. " What did
he do?" I pleaded with her. "Well it went like this. Nellie's husband
told her that he wanted to drive to California and did she want to go with him.
Of course she wanted to go. But the bad part was that Nellie's husband had also
asked Nellie's best female friend to go along with them." "That
sounds okay to me" I told her. "It wasn't an okay thing. When Nellie
had packed their clothes and got in the car, her husband made her sit in the
back seat. And Nellie's friend sat up front with her husband" replied my
grandmother. I had no idea why that was a bad thing at all. There was
nothing in my six-year old mind to comprehend it at all.
"Did they make it to
California?" I asked. "Did they! Why when they got there, Nellie's
husband took off with Nellie's best friend and left her stranded there
alone." "Alone?" I asked. "Alone." "How did she
get home?" I quizzed her. "She had to take an airplane back here all
by herself."
I shoved this story about
Nellie in the back of my mind. It didn't make any sense to me at all at that
time.
My grandmother always
talked to me like I was twenty which was a good thing and yet kind of rough to
understand what she was telling me at times.
By the time I was eleven,
I understood what had happened to poor Nellie. She had been abandoned by her
husband and cast aside for another woman. Since Nellie lived alone, I again
asked my grandmother what happened to him. "Nellie never saw him again in
her entire life. He just up and vanished with that woman."
I knew full well the
moral of this story: Never let your husband ask your best female friend to go
along on a long car trip and NEVER be forced to sit in the back seat of the car
or you'll wind up like Nellie did. Alone.
Whenever I saw Nellie, I
felt nothing but pity for her. By the time I was fourteen, she passed away
taking her grief along with her. Guess a lot of you would say "Why did she
let her husband force her to sit in the back seat in the first place?"
That is my reaction as well to this entire short story. If it had been me, heck
if I would have in the first place!
Sherry Hill
Copyright © 2014
Sherry Hill
All Rights Reserved
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