Beana_6

Dear Spiral Notebook

I heard little parts of Miss Ola's life from her growin' up stories she shared with me but it had a different spin to it when I was grown and heard more about it from others.  By the time I came to know Miss Ola and her  sisters, Dorthy and Joyce May, they were old women. Joyce May was the only one of the sisters to get married and she had four sons. I can tell you that one her grandsons is a retired agent with the FBI.  I actually was privileged enough to get to answer some questions from a government man who came right into my home and sat down with a pen and paper.  I offered him some coffee as I recall but he said "no mam" very politely.  I think they have to refuse refreshments when they are working.  I answered all his questions that I had answers for concerning Kevin, her grandson.  That kind of sticks out in my mind as a very important thing I did in my life.  I don't know why really, but being a part of helping Miss Ola's' favorite nephew become something so important as an FBI agent made me feel real good.

Miss Ola liked to tell about the wonderful weekends she and her sisters had with their father while they were growing up.  He taught them to read and write and plenty of arithmetic skills too.  She said that he and her Mama would read them to sleep and teach them songs and that he brought presents every single weekend to their house.  I myself, felt kind of jealous about living in a house where your Daddy only came a couple of days a week.  She said he had a very important job that kept him away during the week.

When I was bigger, my grandma told me that Miss Olas' Mama had been a very beautiful colored woman who could sing like bird.  Miss Ola's Daddy was the president of the only bank in the county, and a white man with a white wife and 5 white children.  When he died, he left 100 prime acres to his three half colored daughters and some kind of trust thing that made it possible for Miss Ola and her sisters to just spend their lives out in the piney woods of east Texas.  It seemed to me that Miss Ola thought her life was just fine but my Grandma told me that they had sort of lived their whole young lives with a big ol' secret lie just hanging over their heads about their Daddy.  I think Miss Ola must have just made peace with it all, cause she was always tellin' me not to hold grudges cause it just gives you the "runs."