Page 33 - Daphne Hart - 89 and Feeling Fine
P. 33

What parent does that?

          I took a puff from it—I coughed and vomited. I thought

          I was about to die. He laughed and thought it was funny.


          I never did it again and never smoked all my life.

          Thinking about it later, that was a horrible thing to do to

          a child.

          I guess to him, that was very funny.


          I can still hear that stupid laugh of his.

          My brothers were mean and backward in school, and

          along with the other mean kids, they would tease me—

          because by this time, I stuttered badly. My mother tried
          everything  to  help  me  overcome  my  stuttering;  she

          would make medicine of all kinds. Whatever she heard
          about,  she  would  try  it.  I  did  not  get  a  fair  chance,

          neither in school nor in life.


          My  younger  brother,  although  he  wasn't  bright  in
          school,  could  fix  anything  and  everything  that  was

          broken. We called him Mr. Fixer Man. We had a clock
          once—the  kind  you  wind  up  and  it  stands  on  three


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