Chapter 03
Family Rules
As I remember, my parents divorced when I was nine years old. My little brother, Jimmy, was six. Seven years later, a stepdad, soon to be a retired colonel, was introduced into our lives. My two older sisters were already out of the house.
“Lee Ann, you mowed the lawn.
It’s important to him that he pays you for that.”
“We’re family, Mom. That’s not how you raised us.”
“He was raised differently.”
“Then we were raised wrong? Family doesn’t take care of family just because you’re family?”
“No.”
I saw the pride in her eyes.
“No. You were raised right. But that doesn’t make the way he was raised wrong.”
“From the stories he tells at the kitchen table, it doesn’t sound very right.”
“Giving things is the only way he knows how to say he loves you.”
“That’s what Christmas and birthdays are for.”
“It would mean a lot to him. I’m not saying you have to take it. You do what you feel is right.”
“I’m not taking it, Mom.”
Her smile told me she had fulfilled her promise but was proud of my choice.
What I discovered that day:
Military rank did not hold authority over civilians.
Sometimes, people used to command didn’t know how to handle not actually being in control.
Daniel's Den 