Vengeance

Lovely daughter Diana is back from Australia with heaps of family news, so much it will take me many months to absorb it all.

Most-impact items:

1. A photo of my grandmother, now long dead, taken when she was about 40. I'd seen a photo taken when she was in her 20's, playing games on the grass wearing an ankle length skirt, but her face was indistinct. So, I'm floored by her beauty. When I knew her, beginning at about age 6, she was cranky and sick from severe diabetes for which there must have been none of today's treatments. I do remember with gratitude however her many, many kindnesses to me.

2. A photo of a movie theater in Sydney Australia suburb Collaroy, designed by my father when I was five years old.  Not only is it still screening movies but has been officially dedicated as a monument and cannot be demolished. The poor old guy, my father, he was a drunk, and it's a shame he didn't live to enjoy the honor. I suppose my brothers, and their children, get to enjoy some of the reflected appreciation.  My father ignominiously abandoned us when our mother died. My younger brothers, then 8 and 5, went to an orphanage, and I went back to California. The wounds are still healing. Diana had guts and determination and strength to go 'home' and in a metaphoric sense shore up some of the damage. Women handle such healing chores, I believe, better than do men. In any case, it took a woman to handle this job. Brava Diana!!

3. Diana got to read some of the letters  I wrote from America to my brothers in Australia, and to see photos of Diana as a child kept by my brother's widow Beryl who made Diana's visit not only possible, but plausible. So I owe a heap of thanks to Beryl.

4. Diana has posted 167 Australia photos on a website that I have access to. The brave new world department, ha ha; Does away with having to secure and mail copies. There must now be over 300 Australia photos I have access to. 

At the risk of my phrasing it incorrectly, I'll nevertheless venture a guess that Diana will probably be able to more easily get on with her life now that she has created a way for her to view her greater family.

Thanks for listening.

Barry

http://journals.aol.com/bbartle3/Vengeance/

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• #3 Comment from bgilmore725 
  8/13/07 8:43 PM | Permalink

  It sounds like the trip to Australia has changed her life. What a great opportunity for her, flying Down Under to meet her uncles and cousins. Did she make any videos so you could see and hear your family moving about and talking? I'm curious, now... do you have an Aussie accent, left over from your time living there? That was a tragic change in your life, to be separated from your brothers like that, so long ago. Your daughter must have been wanting to do this for a long time. She's a fine woman, and I know you are so proud of her. Were those letters written back when you were a kid, or as an adult? I have letters my parents wrote to me when I was a kid... I treasured them because they could say on paper what they couldn't say out loud. Hmmm, I'm a little like that myself. Just realized that. I write much better than I speak. I'm glad your daughter's trip shed good light on your memories, and eased the pain and sorrow, somewhat. Mission Accomplished!
  bea
  
  http://journals.aol.com/bgilmore725/Wanderer/
• #2 Comment from aimer 
  8/11/07 10:21 PM | Permalink

  Diana is clearly a wonderful woman and I think that you must be a pretty wonderful father as well.--Sheria
• #1 Comment from gazker 
  8/10/07 2:02 PM | Permalink

  Amazing Baz, women are much better than us at things like that. Did I ever tell you I have family in Oz too? Just at the edge of the Blue Mountains, looking into Sidney.
  Gaz