Birdie, how long has it been? It feels like an eternity. After high school I saw you a couple of times coming back home to the lake, boating and skiing, going out on the jet-skis, sunbathing on your dock, right next to ours. Then poof. I guess you graduated from college and your family sold the lake house and I never saw you again. So, seeing you on Facebook, now all married and with grown-up kids, it’s quite something. Your two boys and girl are so good-looking. And your husband looks like a respectable guy. As you can see from my photos, I also got married after college. I lived in the city for a long time, but I’m back living in the lake house. It’s good to see that you are doing well and if you’re ever in Atlanta with your family, you’re welcome to come to stay with us.
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Birdie, I have enjoyed our conversations. I’m so sorry that your husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but it’s good that they caught it early. I feel for your daughter and what she is going through with pain killers. We’re not all perfect. Last year my daughter, Hellen, brought home for Thanksgiving some football player from school. He was a tall, handsome guy with one of those crooked noses that made him look more imposing. She was madly in love with the guy. But throughout the year I kept hearing my wife talking about how he cheated on Hellen and how horrible he treated her until they split up. The reason I mention all this is because when she came home for Thanksgiving this time around she brought home Shawn – a guy she had described to be more of a geek, with glasses, who was in computer science. So when the doorbell rang and I opened the door, I was in absolute shock, realizing that this Shawn, this geek, she told me about was indeed a Black man.
I was speechless. He wore a nice Harris Tweed jacket with a bow tie and a little fedora hat. “Aren’t you going to say hello to Shawn,” Hellen said, breaking me from my shock and giving me a big hug.
My son, Pete, about three years younger and still in high school and Ali, my younger daughter, all seemed to like him a lot. My wife, on the other hand, was reluctant. While she didn’t seem to disapprove, she kept whispering to me in the kitchen that it was just a phase, just a phase, and that soon she would find someone else. I don’t consider myself racist, but I feel that there is a place for them and then there’s a place for us. I realize that this county, Forsyth, at one point kicked all the Black people out and a few years back Hosea Williams and some protesters marched throughout the county screaming of segregation, white supremacy, and the KKK. And while I have always stayed away from all that and believed all people are equal, I prefer that they go to their own churches, live in their own neighborhoods, go to their own schools, and leave our part of the world as simple and uncomplicated as possible. Just like when we grew up here, swimming on the lake and having a good-ole time. Anyway, Birdie, I want to hear what you think. Am I overreacting? Should I let it go? For a while, you were my best friend, at least until you left for college. So, let me know.
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Birdie, I do appreciate your advice tremendously. However, I’m torn. What we all had hoped was to just be a phase ended up being a relationship, and Hellen and her Black guy have moved in together. They even stopped coming to the house. I have asked her what was wrong and she has said that it’s just the way we look at them. I don’t mean anything, I don’t put him down. And she mentioned the expression I had on my face when they were sunbathing by the dock and boats kept passing by and seeing the two of them, a White woman and a Black man rubbing suntan lotion on each other. She was shocked that her mother and I looked embarrassed. What was I to do?
They moved to an area of town in the city, Decatur, filled with liberals. They say it’s the next up-and-coming area of town. Margaret and I were planning to go down for a visit, when out of the blue, Shawn called me and talked to me very politely, the “how’s the business and how are you doing mister Laima” and then he dropped the bomb. He asked for my daughter’s hand in matrimony. I didn’t know what to say. So, I said that it sounded good, but that I wanted to ask Margaret first so we could give them a full blessing. I told my wife about it and she said that she had to digest the information so as not to tell them anything right away.
Honestly, I was so busy with work opening a third hardware store and a sod place for contractors that I did not call them back. Finally, I spoke to Hellen about it, and that we could plan the idea of the wedding when she cut me off and said not to worry, they had eloped. They had dinner with his parents and as a wedding gift, they were going to give them money for the down payment to buy the run-down house where they lived in the city.
I didn’t know what to say.
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