
MindLoveMiserysMenagerie
Oh dear, she thought. Mother had to arrange this outing, now didn’t she? She looked at her second cousin, Emile Candiac in the photo with her blushing and pretending to be shy. If only they knew she was turning red from rage.
I wish she would devote more of her time making Father happy, instead she finds it is her duty to make me miserable. Well, I’ll hand to her, she has succeeded.
Can you imagine, how embarrassing this will be for me if word gets out at the sanatorium that I was escorted by Emile Candiac! All of my colleagues had refused courtships by him. He’s the laughing stock of our neighbourhood, let alone le Sanatorium Alphone Genest. Now I will be the joke of the town! Me! a second year resident nurse! They will all think I am so pathetic that my mother runs my social life as well as my personal life! Jesus, Mary, Joseph, what next? Will she order me to go to the New Year`s Eve ball with him as well? I must feign illness. I must!!
Mother thinks that at the age of twenty, I will be an old spinster if I am not wed. I don’t want to be tied down like she was so young. Is it my fault she was without a grain of intelligence or logic marrying Father at fifteen years old, a man thirty years her senior! Emile Candia is twenty years older than me and I am not interested in being courted or even considered for marriage with such dunce! An old disgusting one at that!
I’ve been saving from my meagre wages, to travel. Maybe I could go with some of the girls to the States. We could take the train and head out to Newport, Vermont for a weekend. That would be nice. I hear their fabric, especially cotton is of higher quality than in Canada and at reasonable costs.
Now how can I get the image of that disgusting photograph out of my mind?
meddling mothers
desperate bachelors
crestfallen maidens
© Tournesol ’15
Ugh …. a recipe for disaster!
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This photo was taken 10 years before my grandmother was born.
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Ah, but those were the ways of the times. Sad. So much misery. Reminds me of the Forsyte Saga. 😦
Hopefully you liked the photo anyway though — 😉
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I loved the photo…I have a lovely photo of Grandmaman at 15 so taken in 1915…I had it on my other blog often as a header or widget. I tried to post it tonight in my header but it didn’t look right.
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🙂
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Excellent write! You really created an interesting backstory for that photo ! 🙂
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Thanks, I first had an idea of her being cousin to Desirée the friend and confidante of Napoléon but it would have taken too long…another time…another prompt:)
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Cool idea. 🙂
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Great story to go with the photograph! Very inventive!
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Thank you, I love stories in that time period.
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We never realize how different the social scene is these days compared to what it was like just 100 years ago!
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Indeed we do not especially young women do not realize how life IS easier today.
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Aye, talking about it is always interesting with my niece.
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Meddling mothers indeed. Though as I understand social norms of the times girls were married off for various reasons, one was the spinster idea another was to get them off their hands, parents that is. Sad really that so many women were forced into unhappy marriages. Enjoyed your tale Cheryl-Lynn.
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let us not forget those who had a taste of the forbidden fruit before marriage were often whisked off very quickly.
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Yes sadly so.
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