Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat  - Clara Wersterfer

June 14, 2007

Nora's Secret
by Clara Wersterfer

Nora woke in the darkened room. Tears were running down her face. The pain in her back and legs was worse. She called out for Katherine, her cousin, with whom she lived. Katherine entered the room and asked if Nora needed something.

"When is the doctor coming? Isn't it getting late? What time is it?"

Nora was full of questions.

Katherine assured her the doctor would be there shortly and left to get a cold cloth for Nora's head when the doctor arrived. After his examination, he leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"I'm so sorry to have to tell you this, Nora, but I believe you have infantile
paralysis. We won't know for sure for a few days, but due to the pain,
fever and paralysis, I would say it is. I will give you something for
relief for tonight and will come by tomorrow to check on you."

He turned to Katherine and told her to keep Nora's son away from his mother.

The medicine did help the pain and gave Nora time to think. She had left Jim, her husband, six months ago and taken their young son, Will, with her, moving fifty miles away to stay with her cousin. If Jim found out she was sick, maybe paralyzed for life, he might come take Will home with him.

The next day the doctor returned and informed Nora she did have infantile paralysis or Polio as it was sometimes called.

Getting her thru the fever and pain was a long, life threatening procedure. Once she felt better, she still was unable to move her legs.

The doctor told her she might never walk again. If she did not regain the use of her legs in a year, the chance of ever walking again was slim.

This was a blow Nora wasn't prepared to hear. She called Katherine and asked her to not tell any of the relatives what the doctor had told her. Katherine kept her secret and Nora slowly recovered.

Nora spent her days in a wheel chair. She was a seamstress and kept busy
making wedding gowns and fancy clothes for those who could afford them. She
also did alterations and pieced quilts to earn money. The year was 1916. Will
was five years old and would begin school next year. Eighteen months had passed
since she was stricken with the dreaded disease. So far, none of the kin seemed to know about her being crippled.

Nora lived in fear that Jim would find out and come take Will from her. He was the only child she would ever have and to loose him would be more than she could bear. If she
could get by until school started, Nora had devised a plan which she shared with Katherine. Nora would begin to use her maiden name and also give it to Will. Katherine helped her to write a letter to Jim and tell him his son had succumbed to a bout of flu. She explained that she, too, had the flu and couldn't notify him until after the burial.

A year later Nora received divorce papers which she burned to prevent them being found by her son. When Will asked about his father, he was told Jim was killed by a horse
he was training. She kept a picture of her and Jim on the dresser, for Will's sake.

Nora heard that Jim had re married, moving to a more distant part of the state. She breathed a sigh of relief. Her secret may be safe. Her plan worked for 27 years. Her son and his father both believed the other one was dead.

Nora was exposed when her sister passed and Lily, her daughter in law, took Nora to the funeral. As fate would have it, Jim was visiting relatives in the same town. Wanting
to see Nora and pay his respects for his ex sister in law, he decided to go to the funeral
home.  Nora was in her wheel chair surrounded by many relatives and did not see her
ex husband when he came. Lily was near the door and the moment she saw
Jim, she was taken aback. He looked like the picture on Nora's dresser!
The resemblance to Will, her husband, was unbelievable. She knew
he had to be closely related.

Approaching him, she introduced herself, by the name Will had always used, his mother’s maiden name. Jim asked if she was related to Nora's family. Lily explained she married Nora's son. Jim then said he had once been married to Nora. Lily became so weak in the knees she had to sit down. Questions flew and the pieces began to fall into place. Jim and Lily exchanged addresses and phone numbers. Jim left without seeing Nora. He seemed to be in a state of shock.

Lily returned home without saying anything to Nora about Jim. Now it was up to her to tell her husband his father was still living. What would she say to him?

She decided to wait one more day and sleep on it. The matter was taken out of her hands when her father in law came calling thirty minutes after she arrived home. Jim couldn't wait to meet his son. Lily invited him in and Will and Jim stood eye to eye. Jim grabbed his 32 year old son in a bear hug while  Will wondered who this man was. Jim said

"I am your father, Will. I thought you were dead. I met your wife today at your Aunt’s funeral and learned you had not died with the flu all those years ago."

In the space of a few minutes, 27 years of separation was erased. There were tears, hugs, kisses and many questions. They kept searching each others face for the likeness that was so obvious. They bonded almost immediately. The two men did not think of sleep until almost dawn. Too many events to talk about. 27 years of catching up to do.

Jim and Will would visit with Nora the next day. She explained her fear of loosing her only child and they both understood. It did not take away the pain of not knowing each other for
the past 27 years. They couldn't regain the lost birthdays and holidays. The childhood diseases and first day of school were lost forever.

Jim wept for the missing time with his first born child. How much easier life would have
been for Will to have his father. Nora had lived in fear those 27 years fearing of her secret being revealed; the overpowering fear of her son being taken from her. She admitted being selfish and lying. Her love for her child was greater than her fear of lies and deceit. Nora wept tears of relief when it was over. They both forgave her. She had suffered
enough.

My father and grandfather would have only seven years before Jim was felled with a massive heart attack at age 59. However, they crammed a lot of living and loving in those years. Dad thanked God many times over for the opportunity to know his father and have those years together. Had Jim not been visiting in his home town when Nora's sister died, Father and Son would never have met.

Clara Westerfer

cbwest@webtv.net