Last week, I received a letter in the mail, a letter addressed to my mother, via me and including the above picture. The return address was Texas, which meant that it was from my mother's family, but I didn't recognize the name.

In scanning the letter to try and figure out where it was from, I read:

"This is a picture of my Mother's Mona Elizabeth Holland, Foreman, Hargrave (deceased) oldest brother, James Eldrin Holland, and my Aunt Jerry on their Wedding Day. My first Cousin's Mother and Daddy (Gladys Holland Zuckert)."

It took me a minute to decipher, but I suddenly realized that I was looking at a picture of my grandfather and grandmother.

Here is the story that my mother always told me about her parents.

Her father, James Eldrin Holland, was in the American army that occupied Belgium after WWI, where he met and married my grandmother, Germaine Meerbergen and took her back to Texas.

Now, my grandmother wasn't a snob, but she was upper class, and while riding the train back to Ponta she saw these tiny filthy shacks along the way and said, "Imagine the poor people who have to live like that!" Now you know what's coming, right? When Eldrin took her to his home, it was to one of those shacks.

He was basically a dirt farmer, and, besides that, was also stupid and racist and white trash (unlike the rest of his family, my mother always emphasized), and as soon as Germaine learned enough English to realize this fact she took Gladys, who was about a year and a half old, back to Antwerp.

They told Gladys that her father was dead, but when she was around ten she found out that he was, in fact, living. Germaine never badmouthed Eldrin, she told Gladys that she would have to meet him and make her own decision. So, when she grew up and came to America, she went to Ponta, TX to meet her family, and found the her father was still handsome as the day is long, and still dumb as a rock.

She said that the rest of the family told her how much they had loved Gerry, and how right she had been to leave him!

That's the story that I was told. This is what the letter said, as I read it to my mother:

ME
'I don't know if they were married in Belgium or Ponta, Texas.'

GLADYS
They got married in Belgium.

ME
'I do know that my Uncle Eldrin brought my Aunt Jerry to Ponta, Texas where my first cousin Gladys Holland, Zuckert was born. They had a son born in Ponta, Texas also.' Hey, I didn't know that!

GLADYS
Yes, I had a brother who died before I was born.

ME
'I was told my Uncle Eldrin rolled over on him and smothered him to death.'

GLADYS
I never knew that! My mother would never talk about it!

ME
'Shortly after that Aunt Jerry took Gladys back to Belgium.' Did you say that he was your older brother?

GLADYS
Yes.

ME
But if he died before you were born, why does she say that after the baby died, you were taken back to Belgium when you know that you were a year and a half old when you left?

GLADYS
I don't know, Boma (her step-grandmother) was the one who told me about him, and she said that he died before I was born.

ME
Could Boma had gotten it wrong?

GLADYS
O, she always got things wrong! I'm going to write back and make certain that she got the timing right.

So, it was fascinating to see these people for the first time, not to mention reading this story that my mother didn't even know, this piece of family history, making my grandparents human to me. I mean, there is a big difference between leaving your husband because he's an idiot and leaving him because he killed your son, albeit accidentally.

Today's horoscope:
You need freedom today and may feel like leaving if you think you are being held back. Don't burn essential bridges!

One year ago today:
The pod people are taking over my brain, and it's all MuchMusic's fault! Damn Canadians...

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Meghan!

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Last Updated Tues 15 February 10:11:09 2000