LJ Idol Survivor: Challenge 3: Smash and Grab

[flipflop_diva]

She came into the world before the turn of the century, small and dark-haired and with a powerful cry.

She was raised like most girls of her day were, to be respectful and dutiful and to know her place.

She met the man she was supposed to marry when she was still a teenager, the son of a friend of a friend of a friend of her father’s. She supposed he was alright, but she didn’t come from the type of family where she was allowed to be picky, and they said their vows in front of a small group of family members.

Life was okay for a couple years. She was a good wife, like she was expected to be. She cleaned the house and cooked the meals and did what he asked. She cared about him but she didn’t love him, but he was her husband and he provided for her and this was her plot in life.

She gave birth to a daughter, who became the center of her world. And then something changed.

Not with her husband, but with herself. Somewhere in between the diaper changes and the play times, she stopped caring. Caring about being the perfect wife. Caring about her husband’s happiness over hers and her daughter’s. Caring about what was expected of her.

She asked for a divorce. Told him one night she didn’t want to do this anymore. And to his credit, he gave her one.

Her parents were horrified. The neighbors were scandalized. Divorce was almost unheard of. And no woman should ever ask it of a man. Especially one with a child! Who did she think she was?

She didn’t care. She took her daughter and walked away. Sewed clothes and other items to earn some money.

She met Edwin not long after. Edwin was different than her first husband. He had dreams — he worked for his father’s small furniture business, but he had plans to set it apart. He thought maybe she could help.

They fell in love. Real love. Not love borne out of a parents’ choice, but a choice she made on her own.

They said their vows, with only her daughter as witness. Respectful women did not get married twice! Her family was embarrassed.

She didn’t care.

She helped Edwin and his father build up their furniture company. Then the two of them and her daughter moved to a bigger house with the profits. And then an even bigger one. They stopped having to worry about money at all.

Together, they had more children. Four of them. They grew up helping in the family business.

Everyone was happy. She was happy. She had made her choice; screw what everyone else thought.

--

Aline always knew she wasn’t normal. Her father lived in a small house across town; her mother lived in a different one. The children at school looked at her confused when she told them. Their mothers looked at her like she was going to infect their children.

But life wasn’t all bad. She lived with her mother and stepfather most of the time. They had a big house. She had a lot of brothers and sisters. Four from her mother and three more from her father.

After school, she helped her mother at the furniture company. Sewing and creating designs with the fabrics.

“Someday, this can all be yours,” her mother would tell her with a smile.

“That will be nice,” Aline would say.

She met Daniel when she was just out of high school. He lived on the opposite side of town from her — the side her stepfather would look down his nose at. Aline didn’t care where he lived, though. She cared that he was smart and witty, and he was kind.

She fell in love fast and hard, and when Daniel asked her to marry him, she accepted without hesitation.

Her stepfather was horrified.

“You cannot marry someone like him!” he told her. “I won’t allow it!”

“You aren’t my father, and you can’t forbid me,” Aline said.

“You marry that boy, and you can say goodbye to your inheritance,” her stepfather said. “No company. No money. No help from us.”

“I’m sorry,” her mother told her later. The company was in her stepfather’s name. If he wanted to kick Aline out of it, he would. “Please think this through, darling,” her mother pleaded.

“You didn’t care what people thought,” Aline said to her.

“No, I didn’t. And I will support you. But I want you to be happy. You could have a good life.”

“Yes,” Aline said. “I could.”

She packed her bags a few weeks later. She married Daniel a few months after that in a small church in his small town. Her mother and her siblings came, but her stepfather did not. He had made his decision, and he was sticking to it. And she had made hers.

She and Daniel moved into a small apartment until they could afford to buy a house. Daniel worked long hours, and Aline — no longer welcome at her family’s business — put her sewing skills to use. She got a job as a seamtress and brought in as much as she could to help.

They had a baby a few years later, a little boy named Daniel, just like his father.

“Do you regret it,” her mother asked her when the baby was a few months old. She had come over for lunch to their cramped little apartment, a far cry from the almost-mansion she lived in. She looked at the baby, dressed in homemade clothes, and the few little toys made for him by his dad, but she left unspoken the rest of her thoughts: You could have so much more.

Aline picked up her baby, held him against her as he cooed and giggled, and looked around her small home. At the wedding photos on the little coffee table. At the baby blanket on the couch. And the furniture that Daniel had made himself.

She turned back to look at her mother.

“No,” she said. “Not for a minute.”

Her mother was quiet for a moment, but then she smiled. “That’s my girl,” she said. “You grabbed your dreams. Good for you.”




Non-fiction.

The first thing I thought of when I read the prompt was "Smash the patriarchy, grab your dreams" but it took a little bit longer for me to realize I had the perfect story for that in my own family. The woman in the first section of this entry is my great-grandmother, Evaline. My parents gave me her name as my middle name, in honor of her. The daughter, Aline, is my grandmother, and her little boy Daniel is my dad. My grandparents were married almost 60 years before my grandfather passed away, and they had three kids total.

I only met my great-grandmother once, when I was about 11. She lived to be in her 90s, still kicking around in her huge house because she insisted she didn't need anyone to take care of her. She was a kick-ass, independent woman right till the end, and so was my grandmother. I hope part of them has carried down to me, my sister and our daughters.




Thank you for reading! This was written for a new adventure in the therealljidol world — Survivor Idol! You can see all the entries here. Voting should be up on Saturday night!

I'm on the Luzon tribe, so I would super appreciate if you could vote for me and my teammates:
adoptedwriter
alycewilson
bittyjane
bleodswean
murielle
n3m3sis43
uselesstinrelic

Comments

[adoptedwriter]

I totally love family history stories! You nailed it!

[bsgsix]

I LOVE that you thought about smashing the patriarchy here, and how you wove that in in such an elegant, true-to-life manner. There wasn't any hint of "I hate certain people" (which so many people assume comes along with "smashing the patriarchy"), but instead, there was a subtle nod toward the hard choices and decisions of women in the family. I'm thrilled that this is real - women, empowered, making their OWN choices, and choosing their own destinies. I think many women - myself included - strive to make sure to be like that, to carry on a kick-ass legacy, to keep their sense of "I am enough" intact.

And I know you have that spirit and strength inside you. You showed it right here. <3

[murielle]

You know I love this, right? I love this! I'm grinning from ear to ear. What a marvellously inspiring real-life story! What a proud family history...herstory!...you have!

Brava! Brava!

[bleodswean]

I'm still so impressed with your use of the prompt! This is such a great story and you've done it and your GRANDmothers proud!

[gunwithoutmusic]

This was really good! I loved the parallel between the lives of the two women, and I love that your great-grandmother was still supportive of your grandmother. I could see a very different world where your great-grandmother could have taken on the role that her parents had in her own life, but instead she chose to break that cycle and give her daughter the emotional support to make a life of her own choosing, the way she did. This could have been fiction; it was so cool to see that this is actually a story in your family history! It makes me wish I had taken more time with my own grandparents when I had the chance. Good work!

[alycewilson]

This is fantastic! I dearly love family history, having been investigating my own family's history for five years now. I hope you share this with other family members and consider writing more such stories. It is truly invaluable to have real insights into how people lived and thought and dreamed. Documents and data only tell you so much.

[halfshellvenus]

I really liked the boldness of these women, and their strong sense of being true to themselves even when everyone around them disapproved.

It's interesting that Aline wound up in the same relative place as her mother had, doing sewing work to support her family. But it may also be that having lived through it (before her mother remarried), Aline knew it could be done and it could provide well enough for the most basic things. And with a husband and child she loved, more "things" weren't what really mattered.

Their mothers looked at her like she was going to infect their children.
I also liked this line, because that's EXACTLY how it was, even when I was a kid in the late 60s/early 70s.

[megatronix]

Oh I loooove this! I just sighed a happy sigh when I got to the part that explained it was nonfiction!! I had no idea. It's such a sweet story and reads like a lovely fable, and it's wonderful that it's your own family history! Thanks for sharing this!