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Bex Hall > Memoir in Objects > Merry Christmas, and oh, by the way…

Merry Christmas, and oh, by the way…

February 18, 2022

…you have a brother.

Merry Christmas!

This is the 4th story in the Objects as Waypoints Writing Project series.

The cottage overlooking Strawberry Road

38° 22′ 49.5624”N, 81° 51′ 35.8056”W

Dad left home in 1966 when I was three. In 1969, he had made a new family. And sent us a card to let us know.

It was just weird. I didn’t know this man, my father. Not really. All I knew and wanted more than anything in the world was for him to come home. For us to be a family, just like the ones everyone else had. A Mother and Father and happily ever after. 

You have a brother!

Six years later, in 1975, I flew to Florida and met my brother, met his mother, and watched Dad play the role he was supposed to play for me.

As the tragic heroine, come to wreck lives, I created as much friction as I could muster. My mission was clear: break these people up and Dad would come home.

That didn’t happen. Not that year, anyway.

It took two days to drive home to West Virginia. I clung to hope he’d change his mind and stay, but he bought me a new bicycle and said goodbye.

There was a box under my bed where I kept some of my favorite things. Julie Andrews suggested this, and she couldn’t be wrong. I would pull out the card and focus on what Dad wrote. 

I love you and miss you. All my love, Daddy xox

I knew it wasn’t ALL his love, but it was some, and maybe that was enough.

I love and miss you too, Dad. xoxo

I miss you too, Dad.

Filed Under: Memoir in Objects Tagged With: the 100 day project 2022, the objects

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About Bex

 

Bex Hall

Her writing has appeared in various online and print publications, most recently in Kerning, a literary magazine, and in the Stories of Hope Collection in Transplant Living. Her artwork has appeared and sold through the Grayson Gallery. She blogs here about creative life and creates in Studio BE overlooking the Ohio River. Her work in progress is a memoir about the secret life of objects.

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  • The 100 Day Project

    50 short stories in 100 days.

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  • Creative practice goals:

    Show up every day behind the pen, the brush, or the lens and share my work.

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