I always thought Mom was very against a divorce from Jerry. The narrative I heard was that she visited Saint Louis, then met up with my (step)Dad again, and henceforth was heartily pro-divorce.
Well, the new letters have revealed that Mom filed for divorce from my father Jerry six months before visiting Saint Louis. That surprised me.
Later letters revealed the true story.
- Jerry started a new job FOR Lockheed, contracting AT NASA, encountered stepmother Susanne, realized he hadn’t loved my Mom the last three years, and saw this marriage had to end.
- However, as a Catholic, he couldn’t just bone the new blonde Susanne while married, and also, as a Catholic, he couldn’t file for divorce. So Mom would have to file for divorce. (And, readers, I tell you, I have never felt such kinship with my father. That type of hair-splitting bullshit is the kind of nonsense my younger technical-virgin self would do.)
- Mom almost immediately alerted Jerry’s doctor to say, “This man is spending money recklessly and accidentally setting fires and getting into car accidents and longing for blondes. I think he needs a psychiatrist because he’s losing his mind.” The doctor said, “No, I’ll just give him a stern talking-to.” (1968. Texas. How ill would someone have to be for a manic-depression diagnosis? I don’t know.)
- Mom soon got disgusted enough to say, “Fine, Jerry, you can pay for a mortgage and an apartment, and I’ll file for a divorce, and we can make it official when I find a job.” Six months of job-hunting later she took a break to visit St. Louis with my little five-year-old cock-blocking self and the rest is history.
So the pieces are falling into place. I couldn’t find Jerry in the government NASA directory because technically he was a Lockheed contractor. Mom got divorced so fast after finding my Dad again because she’d already filed. Still don’t know who drove her back from Mizzou when Dolores died, but that will be revealed I am sure.
3 responses to “More family revelations”
… so that means the Story was in fact at least slightly more correct than it was looking there, for a while? Fascinating!
Yes, it’s straightening out. And also on her blog it explains that Dad just merely drove her back from Mizzou after an introduction from a friend, not because her sister died … but then who drove her home when her sister died? It was a significant romance. Still a mystery. It does seem that for everything that gets straightened out, something else kinks up.
Oh – it also means that when Suzanne stayed the night when Mom was in Saint Louis I suspect Jerry and Suzanne did not have sex but did everything up to the line. I giggle. I know that game.