One of Sis's Best

On one occasion when my aunt was visiting, she talked about the time their father inherited $10,000.  Now this was in the 1920s so I am going to calculate that it was the equivalent of inheriting around a million dollars.  The story unfolds that Mr H blew the entire inheritance in ONE YEAR!  He bought my mother and aunt full length fur coats (they were around 13 and 15 at the time).  As he was afflicted with 'The Drink', the rest I gather went to entertaining his cronies at the local pub. 

Amazingly my aunt and mother did not seem particularly upset at this behaviour and shrugged it off with a sort of 'oh that Wascally Wabbit' and 'what can you expect from our Dad' attitude.  Hell, why didn't he buy them a house?   They rented their whole lives and I know from other stories that their life was one of hardship and penury.  My sister said simply, it was because he was an alcoholic and nothing ever make sense when one is trapped in this addiction.

From what I heard from my aunt and sometimes from my mother, it seems their mother  would often up and move when my grandfather went on one of his 'fishing trips' - and not tell him.  My mother, in a rare disclosure of her early life, recounted sitting on a window seat in one of their new places and seeing her father outside, she called out to him and that was how he found out where they were!

I am sure he was an abusive husband but for my mother, he was her touchstone and rock!  A fearful and timid child, she said she would listen at night for the sound of his lighter as he lit a cigarette and then she felt safe knowing he was there, awake, and able to protect her from the night demons that tormented her and made my mother an insomniac for most of her life.

And speaking of smoking in bed, this was a habit that my mother inherited - as did my father.  I can still remember the scorch marks on the hardwood floor of their bedroom from the cigarettes they dropped and left burning.  It is a miracle that we were not all roasted in our beds and a tribute to our Guardian Angels (and further proof of their existence) that we survived!