No Family Tree

I was emailing with a friend and she was telling me how she was creating her family tree. I told her that I don't have the energy to create mine as it will be a big, sordid mess. If I stick with the official "press release," then sure, I guess it can be a nice, little, neat tree. But, to create a true one is going to be a herculean task. I am quite sure an official one exists but I am not sure if my Mother's line is included in there. Still, it would be nice to see so I can imagine where we fit into all that.

You see, my mother is an only child with half-siblings on both sides - one side of which she is one of the youngest and one where she is the oldest. You do the math on what happened there since it's not rocket-science. She was adopted, raised and spoiled by a wealthy, childless couple who were relatives of her biological father, the sweet couple who were officially my grandparents.

Some of these half siblings accept her warmly and some not so much for reasons that only they and God truly know. Besides, I don't blame them as I don't know what they've been told or experienced. Our versions of the truth stems from what we've been told by our elders, right? I'm not sure how I'd react either if I were in their place. Maybe to some of them, she, and we, are a reminder of an episode in their family life that they'd rather forget or it may just be a simple thing of us just not really belonging in their eyes. That's fine. I'm sure we're all both richer and poorer for not knowing each other.

On the other side, it was her biological mother who did her best to keep away since she did not want her younger children to think ill of her for having a child out of wedlock. So we're pretty sure that my Mother will never appear on that tree.

Wow, writing this all out makes me empathize on the kind of emotions my Mother and everyone else probably had and the situations they contended with as they grew up, and still have now that they are growing old. I digress, though - that should probably be for a book of fiction one day "based on a true story." :)

Ours will probably be a phantom branch, a dotted line so I will eventually have to create one of my own. Do I really want to do that? Maybe - when I have the time and energy, sometime in the distant future.