Chapter 39

When Ed's car pulled away carrying our father to his new home, we all called out as loudly as we could, "Goodbye dad!" "Bye" "Bye dad".

We did not wave or run after the car because we all knew that he could not see us. Living with a blind father had taught us all many things. Martha was sixteen, I was fourteen, Irving was twelve, and Helen - nine years old.

For the first time in my life, I felt a deep and abiding resentment toward the two who had brought this separation about. I knew nothing then about human frailty or weakness, but just felt a lot of adolescent anger! When the car was out of sight, we all turned to go into the lovely home that Campbell had built for his family and which was now sold. Irv dashed ahead and instead of leaping into the living room in his usual manner and landing in front of the console radio on the floor, he headed straight for the red leather wing chair which was Campbell's throne all the years we were together as a family! This was father's chair as far back as we could all remember. Now Irv claimed it and none of us questioned it. He curled up in it and stayed there till suppertime - his face still streaked with tears.

Florence had left us two weeks earlier. Campbell had given her a check for three months salary and a wonderful letter of recommendation which I had proof read to him through tears as Florence's departure was one of the most wrenching losses of all. She had been my friend and confidente for eight and a half years. I think she loved Irv and I most of all because we loved her back and really needed her! She would cook special things for Irv and once said to me, "Nannie, when you grow up I'll come and work for you - for nothing!" I used to enjoy helping her dry dishes hang up clothes, do the pesky dusting, setting the table and peeling potatoes. She would talk to me about the current jazz and "Blues" music of the day and we would sing the "Saint Louis Blues" together among other songs! Martha never really warmed to her and once at age 14 she went with her friend Mary Jane into the kitchen and slyly asked, "Florence, what tribe are you from?" Florence just laughed and replied, "I dunno Honey - what tribe are YOU from?" I gave her daughter my precious doll house when she (Florence) left, and she cried when uncle Gay delivered it to her tenement apartment on the South Side. Florence Green - I have never forgotten her!

Florence knew that Eric Hopf had fathered Donald and wisely and with great self control had never divulged that knowledge to anyone. She was too devoted to Campbell to hurt him and she feared Eric because, as I have mentioned before, his KKK connections. I saw Florence only once more when I was twenty, and Donald was six years old, when she visited mother briefly just before she and Eric fled to Wisconsin. She had aged and had been working for a family on the North Shore. She had donated the doll house to her daughter Mary's school on the South Side of Chicago - it was too dangerous to have it in her tenement apartment because of robbery - someone would eventually have broken in to steal it! I hugged her and we cried as we said goodbye - Florence - my dear childhood friend!

Two weeks after father's departure, we were all packed for our move to the house in Des Plaines. Uncle Gay came over and announced that he had a truck and the next day was coming over to pick up father's red wing chair to bring to him in Joliet - and who would like to come along?