100 Days of Memoirs
  • HOME
  • About

Day 11:  The Book Giver

4/16/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
My grandfather passed away when I was eleven. I hadn’t known him in any meaningful way, other than through gifts he gave. He always had something to give me, whether it was a special sweet treat, or a soft wool sweater. 

The most common gift he gave was books. Sometimes he had a handful of books, sometimes an entire garbage bag stuffed with books. The books spanned the genres, from Archie comics, to Babysitter’s Club, to teenage romance. I cherished the books, looking forward to receiving each new batch. 

It took me several years to notice an odd but consistent pattern with the books. Every single book had a name written on the inside cover: “L. Fong,” in simple, clear script. My grandfather’s last name was Fong, but the “L” caught my attention. There was no close Fong relative I could recall with the first initial L. Who was the previous owner of these books, I wondered. But I enjoyed the books, so after a while I forgot about the mystery of L. Fong. I supposed it was probably a distant cousin I had never met.

A year or so after my grandfather passed, my mother revealed a surprising family secret to me. “Your grandfather had a longtime affair with a woman. They had a daughter together.”

I tried to wrap my mind around this news. My mother and her siblings had a half-sister born out of an affair. She was a few years older than me. She and her mother lived nearby. All of this had been a shameful secret unbeknownst to me until my mother decided I was old enough to know the truth.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

“Leah,”* was my mother’s answer.

Leah Fong. L. Fong. My source of books. My half-aunt, unacknowledged by most of our family. I was curious, and asked my mother more questions about Leah. She didn't know much, but was open with what information she had. 

I kept those books for years. Each time I glanced at Leah's name on a book’s page, I thought about her, wondered about her life, and sent her a silent “thank you” for the books.


*name changed
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Follow

    Subscribe to 100 Days of Memoirs by Email

    RSS Feed

    Instagram

    Archives

    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.