Grandma’s Funeral

Uncles and aunts, and brothers and sisters all gathered at the homeplace later for a dinner and a reunion of sorts. I got into a conversation with a nephew I had never met before, Jeff, who lived in a city a few hours away from my home. I mentioned that I had would be visiting there in a few weeks and he spoke up and said “why don’t you stay with Dottie and me?’ I politely refused, but he insisted so finally I said I would stay with them, but only if he would accept the per diem my institution was paying me for the trip. He agreed to that.

Jeff is about 25 years old, about half my age, and is about my height and we are similar in physical appearance. He has been married to Dottie for almost a year. She is a little chubby, about 5 feet 2 inches tall, light brown hair and brown eyes, weighs about 140 pounds, sort of cute, but not especially good looking, and is shy. Jeff told me she had led a sheltered life, and that she does not make friends easily, which I could see as she did not mingle easily at the dinner after the funeral. He also mentioned that her grandfather had told him he would give them $25,000 for every child they had in the first ten years of marriage. Jeff was a little frustrated that Dottie had not become pregnant and he was beginning to think maybe she could not have children. He hinted that he had fathered a child with another woman in their neighborhood, so he knew he was the reason Dottie was not getting pregnant.

Because I was older and more experienced, he shared with me that he and Dottie had sex during her fertile periods. He implied that he let her “rest” the remainder of the month because she did not especially enjoy sex. He had a couple of women who helped him with his needs the other days of the month, in addition to the gal with whom he had fathered a child. It seems though, that she was married, and their couplings were limited.

A few weeks later I called Jeff and confirmed that his offer for me to stay at his house for a few days still stood. I arrived at about noon, and Dottie welcomed me to their home. She showed me to my room and then we had a light lunch. Dottie and I spent the remainder of the afternoon getting to know one another.

For the most part, she stayed home and had few friends.