I came from a very poor, dysfunctional family. You couldn't even describe it as a family, really. My mother died and my father couldn't cope. My brother and I pretty much raised ourselves, along with an assortment of colorful relatives who came and went.
A couple of weeks ago my boyfriend's daughter gave me the book "The Glass Castle" for my birthday. This was just prior to my nine hour wait in the O'Hare Airport. The book kept me occupied. It was also healing.
Written by Jeannette Walls, it's an autobiography of her growing up in extremely adverse circumstances.
Following is the first sentence:
I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a Dumpster.
Yes, she's in a cab in New York City, on her way to a party, when she sees a homeless woman rooting around in a dumpster. And she's not surprised that it's her mother.
That's what her mother does. Not because she has to - but because she chooses to.
Jeannette and her three siblings, all very intelligent and remarkably resilient, manage to escape from their past. They fed, clothed and protected each other.
When I visited my brother on our Christmas Road Trip, my bright, successful sister in law told me that she'd read the book - and that she could relate to it as well. She also found it healing.
My niece, a professional writer, heard Jeanette Walls speak at a writer's conference a couple of years ago. Walls affirmed that the book is true. Two of her sibling are doing well. One is not.
The most remarkable part to me is that the Walls children continue to love and respect their parents.
This book is spectacular.
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