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A.T. Symeonidis's avatar

Wow! This is literally stuffed with circumstances almost taken verbatim from my own early life. Sharon, I suspect there's a definite emotional link between this superb story and that early (wretched) life... OMG!

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Well, there surely is for me and all my family. I am glad you could relate to it in some way, though it may have been painful. Thank you, AT, for continuing to read over here at Leaves.

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A.T. Symeonidis's avatar

I don't remember having connected to any piece of writing, past the classics, like I connect with your wise words. As far as I am concerned, you belong to a distinguished company of minds!!! And keep giving us more ....

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Oh thank you, AT. From now on when I get any critism, my reply will begin with "Oh yeah!? Well AT Symeonidis said that....

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A.T. Symeonidis's avatar

Outstanding, Sharon, outstanding!

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Jim J Wilsky's avatar

A beautifully written piece. Thanks for posting Sharron. - Jim

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thank you, Jim. I hope it showed my affection for her in some way.

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Linda Brown's avatar

A sweet happy birthday!

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thanks, Linda! She would have been 104 this week had she lived.

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Richbee's avatar

A tale told many ways and each one unique. I have returned to home town a few times and left with dust clouds. Home now is where I hang my hat. A rental place, nothing I own.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Yes, I imagine it is hard to go back, whether your young experience was good or bad. Everything has changed - and that is a good thing sometimes, isn't it.

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Richbee's avatar

Change happens every day, good mostly. To return to places you once knew but now get lost with changes and friends are gone. Little trees are big or maybe the forest burned. Regrowth appears, the initials carved in the tree trunk gone. One must move on and sharpen the jack knife to at least whittle a whistle out of Willow wood.

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Kate Henry's avatar

I know that feeling on the corner. A lot of us do. Sort of hopeful but hollow. Nothing good to be found there. Katy's life turned out better away from there, and so did mine. "Love" does not come later at that place. Keep walking, or driving, till you find the one you are supposed to be with. Took 40 years but it happened. And its good.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

You are right - love was NEVER to come from that place for Katy. She attempted to go back and visit three times and never quite succeeded. No amends were ever forthcoming.

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Wade Terry's avatar

Thank you for sharing….. we never know the struggles others face, and often they make ours seem insignificant ….

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Yes, Wade. She is my touchstone. Every time I find myself whining about something, I remember her life and how she thrived in spite of hardship. And I go about the business of the day, grateful.

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James Ron's avatar

Katy had it rough alright...

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

She did, James Ron, but it was a "happily ever after " story eventually. She had a LOT of love around her in her children and friends and neighbors. She won!

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Carol Roe's avatar

I love stories about your very strong, resilient mom. Nice, Sharron.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thank you, Carol. I am trying to get them all down before it is too late. I still have three or four to go...

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Sharon Hudson's avatar

A beautiful birthday tribute, Sharron!

Katy never had the love every child needs and deserves growing up, but we are all better people, because of her love for us. And that love came back to her, hundred-fold, in her later years. I miss her, and yet her spirit is alive, everywhere in this little cabin she spent so many years living in.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thanks, sweet girl. Exactly right. She is still wandering through our lives, isn't she.

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T. D. Wolf's avatar

It is a strange thing, that pull of bad memories, that makes us go back sometimes.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Something in us demands a do-over. We just want to make things right. I do it myself, to no avail, of course. It is a human thing. Thank you John, for always coming back to Leaves to read. You never know what you will find. Sometimes silly cat stories, some times a trip to Italy, sometimes angst-ridden memoir. My subscribers are very brave.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Good for her. True, we can't go home again, nor should we. Really rich story, Sharron. It's like part of your own history.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Yes, my own history, Sue, as told to me over the years by my mom. I keep thinking I am done with the Katy stories, but new one keep coming to mind. Thanks for your comment, friend.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

What more convenient sources for stories than our own histories, right?

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Janice Walton's avatar

Is it possible that she needed to remind herself of why she left?

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

I think she was always an optimist and in her heart of hearts prayed that things would change with her family. They remained estranged her entire adult life, except for her two younger brothers.

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Jim Cummings's avatar

Beautiful and heart wrenching, Sharron. Superbly written. The more I read about Katy, the more I love her.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

She would have loved you, that's for sure. I can just hear her in her later days, wandering into the kitchen, saying "Where's that Jim guy gone to? We haven't seen him for a long time."

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Rebecca Holden's avatar

I remember this poignant chapter from the Katy memoir, Sharron, and I'm so pleased to have read it again. It's made me think a great deal of my own early life and my family - and with such deep gratitude. How lovely to have posted it again to honour what would have been Katy's 104th birthday. xxx

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thanks, Rebecca, for giving it a second look. It is one of my personal favorites. You are a sweetheart.

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Nathan Slake's avatar

Very powerful, Sharron. I haven't read all of these memoir pieces, so some of the information is a little fragmented still, but your words paint a powerful picture and provide insight.

There's something quite special about this opening: She stands at the crossroads in the thin April sunlight.

"The thin April sunlight." Describing sunlight as "thin" lends this a surreal quality that I really enjoy.

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K.C. Knouse's avatar

I enjoy your way with words. Katy certainly didn't go home to relive her horrific past. Couldn't have done that, anyway. Maybe it was to confirm that she had made the right choice to leave. Forty-three years ago, I relocated 1,000 miles from my hometown to a city eight times the size with a completely different culture, terrain, and weather to marry a woman I had only seen in person three times. We've been married forty-two years. I go back to my hometown to visit my family, but I'd never live there again. I'm not that person anymore.

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Sharron Bassano's avatar

Thank you for this comment, KC. It sounds like a story of true boldness! I hope you will write it someday and post it on Cactus Flowers. I was surprised to see it, but our readers are truly interested in our past lives.

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K.C. Knouse's avatar

I have made attempts to write the story, but none feel right. I think I’m too close to the subject.

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