April 1952 • Sonora ~ When Mom left in May of 1950 and Dad hired Ima Deaton to help us younger girls, she lived with us for a while; then during the next two years, she only came off and on. Now that Carleen was sixteen and running the household, she told Dad to let her go altogether. She felt Ima didn’t do much and that he was pouring money down the drain. Carleen also thought Ima wasn’t too bright. She’d shown Claudia how to pull loose eyelashes out so they wouldn’t stick in your eye and Claudia took her literally, pulling out all her eyelashes, making her look quite strange. This finally convinced Dad that Carleen might be right. However, it may have been Claudia’s nervousness and not Ima’s fault, as Claudia had been pulling tufts of her hair out too. At a community picnic, Dad noticed a big bald spot at the crown of his daughter’s blonde head and roared, “What in the hell have you been doing? I’ll snatch you completely baldheaded if I catch you doing such a thing again!”
Ima married a cowboy in Jamestown at the end of April, so she wouldn’t be coming to help anymore anyway.
May 1952 • “For the umpteenth time, I don’t know why she left,” my sixteen-year-old sister snapped. “No, I don’t know when we’ll see her again, no, I don’t know where she went and no, I don’t know if she’s coming back. Now don’t ask any more questions.
Mom was gone, and this time Carleen knew she wasn’t coming back. My oldest sister was in charge now and there was no need to discuss it again.
Our lives continued. Spring faded. Summer passed. Fall blew into winter. The first time our mother left was in April 1950, before I turned two. She came back, but knew she couldn’t live a life she didn’t want. She once told Larry she didn’t know what to do, that she’d go crazy if she didn’t get away, that she had to leave. In early May 1952, packing everything she could carry in her two leather suitcases, she finally left for good.
Clemens siblings 1950
Carleen, Claudia, Cathy, Betty, Larry
Mothers didn’t run away in those days, except ours did, and Betty never forgave her.
to be continued …
© 2017. Catherine Sevenau.
All rights reserved.
Barbara Jacobsen says
Do you know where she went?
Catherine Sevenau says
it’s a book… patience grasshopper…
Louise Lertora says
Please let us know how the children coped
Catherine Sevenau says
You’ll have to keep reading, it’s a book… just one story at a time.
Juliette says
This makes me cry. It makes me sad. Very sad