I was in the first grade the night Mama went after Daddy with the claw hammer. He planted himself against the other side of the bathroom door and she whacked away. I could see it all from my bedroom.
That is the moment I connected wine turned my mother into some other woman who was easily enraged and couldn’t hear me no matter how hard I cried.
I needed my mother. I had to figure out another way to communicate with her when this other woman was around.
I wrote a note. Said she and Daddy needed to get a divorce. The next morning, Mama found my note, then wrote Daddy one saying she’d pay off his debt if he’d give her a divorce. I still have the note signed and dated at the bottom by both.
Excerpt from Care & Feeding by Chela Gutierrez.
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