Okay, here is some backstory to A Nosegay of Violets, a writer’s memoir of psychic awakening. I was told all the years growing up since I was 5 years old, that I was different because there was no father in our house. The only family in the neighborhood at the time to be so. My father suffered a terminal disease and was in the hospital from the time I was 5 until he died there. I was 12. Mom constantly reminded us to make better grades, to be better behaved (hard for my daredevil, tomboy ways) to be more proper, etc. etc. all in the name of being different.
After years of hearing this and thinking it was bad, to be different, I finally told myself, well, if I’m going to be tagged different, I will follow that road. In high school at my jr. prom, my boyfriend Walt Rutkowski, asked what flowers I wanted for this February prom. All the girls went for the expensive orchids. I loved simple beauty and asked for violets. Poor Walt, the florist had to search far and wide. They were probably more expensive than the orchids most of the girls preened,
My neighbor who I sometimes babysat for, 5 year old Dawn Deleen, came over to have her picture taken with me. Years later, at her jr. prom, she asked her boyfriend for violets, probably forgetting about when she was 5. While living in Florida, Dawn saw the book cover and title, went searching in her photo albums and came up with my jr. prom photo with her! I didn’t even know this picture existed! So, here it is.
A Nosegay of Violets!
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