Kennedy's Secretary

Chapter 2

(Although she is famous for being another Mary on The CW's "Reign", Adelaide Kane fits every possible caliber as Jackson's sister, Mary Elizabeth Lancaster ~D💗)

*************************************************

I remember the day my happy and simple life changed.

A day that sticks out to me like a sore thumb and a day that is hard for me to discuss to this day.

It was the day my father died after a long and irreversible sickness.

It began in the summer of 1959 and a lot of things were going on around the world at that time. The year rock n' roll was changing tune, the year the drive-in days were starting to become more contemporary , and the year I left Canada for a better life elsewhere.

It all started when Father caught a horrible case of pneumonia after a outing on the sea fishing for cod in the chilly March weather. He eventually got better after almost a week and a half of illness but he remained in delicate health from then on out. He rarely left his bedroom and if he did it was to be wheeled into the study to conduct business on the estate. I remember how hard it was on all of us children. We couldn't speak too loudly and we couldn't stomp our feet up the stairs because both bothered Father's ears and disturbed his sleep. I remember often spending my days out of doors, often going down to the beach right outside the house by the verandah to scream, roll around in the sand, and let out all my anger and frustrations over the situation.

However, it wasn't just because of my father's situation that had me in such an irritated state of mind. I felt that I was stuck inside a rut, this mental state of feeling or seeming as if my life would never change. That I would die in this place having never known what life was like outside of my home and my family. I wanted to see the world outside of my town, outside of my small world where everyone knew me. I wanted to start my life anew, in a brand new place with different people and somewhere with adventures and opportunities to make memories

Then one day, in early January of 1960, my father died, surrounded by his family and his best friend, family lawyer and estate manager Miles Farley. It was a very sad day, one full of grim, bleak and melancholy attributes all around. His parting words after last rites were "Marion, Miles, my children, I love you all so much."

When he died, the whole family soon started falling into disarray. Such sadness that filled the house in those few days after he died, I cannot describe it.

▶️

The funeral was held at St. Mark's and it was quite a somber occasion. The bells tolled with the sounds of heartache at its fallen patriarch and half the town was in the grand old Anglican church, listening to the somber tones of the preacher in the marble pulpit giving a solemn eulogy.

At my mother's church a special Mass was given for the family, of which my mother, Mary and I alone attended out of the whole family. Finally, a memorial service in the local synagogue by Rabbi Lemuel Stein, the German refugee of World War II my father had aided in fleeing from Poland, concluded the affairs until the small burial in the family graveyard down the lane from the verandah I sit upon even now.

The next morning, a very windy one at that, my mother beckoned for us all with the exception of Tristan to meet her and we all gathered in the sitting room. My mother sat on the Victorian sofa and said to us in a tired voice;

"My dear children, I must talk to you."

"Yes, Mother?" I said as Mary and I sat close by her.

"This is a matter I did not want to bring up until we were all here, together, in this room. But, now that we are all here, I shall tell you. As you know, our home here has been the lifeblood of not only our family but of the town we live in. Most of the people who have worked on our land are from Hopeton, and they have greatly benefited from us. However, we have had to let most of them go their own way as we cannot afford to pay them proper wages."