Chapter One
Families - like the people within them - are each unique and special. Like the snowfakes falling from the sky, each one is different than the one before them. It's the world that surounds us that brings out that uniqueness. This is my story, my life, some joyful some not. Somethings I'm still learning, others are lessons that though difficult to learn will never be forgotten.
Since I count myself as a member of the human race - a familey - within its self I can not tell this story without hope that it will shed some light into each of your families and make the road a little easer to travel.
We begin this journey with our main charter.Throughout this story there will be moments and facts that are 100% belevable and some that are as wispy as the cotten candy clouds you see above you. This will all become clearer as you get to know this charater.
Her name being Hope. You see Hope's life is like that. Sometimes crystal clear and rooted firmly here on earth. Other times it's free floating far far above the clouds themselves.
Hope's story starts in the season of conflict between summer and winter of 1944. This seemed fitting since the essence of her life - in her opinion - has swayed from connection to dis-connection at any given moment. In 1944 we were still at war. Over 60 years has passed and we are still at war. "Is this the norm? "Thinks Hope. "Will there ever be a time when we can come together as a familey? A familey that looks out for one another?" Hope's family seemed like the tipical familey of that time. One father, one mother, a big brother and a big sister.
Oh ya there was also the secret - there had been a second sister, but no one was talking much about that. It was to be taken as fact that every memorial day flowers were to be gathered to be placed on her grave. Nothing more nothing less. It was fact that it was Hope's duty to gather these flowers . To place them on the grave and that was that. This secret would plague Hope for the next 50+ years. Untill an ailling parent could hold the secret no longer.
To take a quick glance at Hope as a small child one would think that everything was as it should be - happy and carefree. Her early memories are of bright colored beads on a walker, leading na na from room to room and happely playing in the largest mud puddle she could find. The mud and conflicts of life didn't matter. They could easely be washed away in a tub full of brightely colored bubbles. Life was just one big happy blur up to the time to begin school.
