It’s remarkable to me how consumed I have been by Mom’s letters. It’s helped me plot the jumble of my childhood. I know the date Jerry broke his collarbone and made us touch his scalp stitches. (Same day Mom flew me to Saint Louis.) But then why was David in the car with us? (Because he was seven.)
The most notable thing is that during the divorce drama there are hundreds of letters. Carbons from Mom, responses from friends and family, and in all those letters, only one person mentions the kids. Specifically, Marilyn Ferguson, friend of Deepak Chopra, wrote of how poor David had no friends and his only playmate was Jerry, and “think what a divorce would do to David (not to mention Ellen).”
And really, speaking in my capacity as a parenthetical phrase there, she’s right. The divorce just gutted Dave. I was with Mom in St. Louis all summer, adjusting, but Dave kept living with Jerry while Mom was in St. Louis. Then she swept back to Texas, signed the papers, and left with Dave over the course of a week.
And would I have done the same? Absolutely. Just maybe … not so fast.