I wasn’t always married. I wasn’t even always a Mom. I used to be single. I was self-centered then. Well, mostly self-centered. I used to tan deer-hides and build saunas with old men and hike around Wisconsin with my dog and scour the state for roots music and Menominee Indian language speakers… I took my sisters camping and worked 3 jobs and went to college and failed a class or two…
Then I quit school and adopted my niece… Gloria. She was almost three and she changed my life. I think I might have changed hers too. I was single. She was unpleasant. But she was also funny and bright and silly and loved all the attention. We read books. (for hours at night) She would wake up screaming and I forgot what it was like to read to myself, or hike through the woods, or type a letter on my 1942 Remington Rand typewriter. (Gloria broke it one morning at 6AM by stuffing it with gummy bears- in the almost 9 years I have been her Mom, I have never found anyone who could fix it) She loved things like glitter (she tracked it through the house) we called it Fairy Dust and used it to induce good dreams in attempt to “magic” away the night terrors. (they are finally gone now that she is almost 11, in case you were wondering) She loved dresses and tulle and sparkly shoes. When we went to court to finalize the adoption, she told the entire town she was “going to court to sing and dance!” ( which she did, down the hallways)
We had two dogs. A Nana and a Bumpa. Three Aunties. Four Uncles. A Dyenna and a cat. Glo had preschool, kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade. She had ice skating lessons, voice lessons and of course slight ADHD and a group of therapists. She also had the St. John’s Episcopal Church Ladies, the old men there who drank soda with her after service. And a mama who really wanted a another daughter.
