Trish Learns About Family.

Susan starstruck with this generous good looking young man Marcus Grainger replied without delay.

“If you ask my father’s permission, I’ll agree to marry you and am not interested in seeking a rich man but a man who will love me and my children and be loyal to me throughout life. My parents are my role model for a happy married life and that is what I want too. You’ll have to convince my father that you’ll be faithful and loyal that’s all. Our Chinese culture is very conservative, and he’ll have to be convinced you can deal with that as I am his precious daughter and would want you to love my parents as I do too.”

Trish sat spellbound as the story of Susan meeting her husband unfolded and involuntarily sped out of her chair and hugged the startled Susan who hugged her back. They left the children to scan through all Trish’s childhood books and rejoined the adults’ hand in hand. Marcus smiled broadly as his wife rejoined him to talk with Anthony and Marion Sykes noting Trish’s sisterly action. Trish spoke.

“We have decided to become sisters, so I suppose you have another daughter now Marion.”

They all laughed, and Marion spoke.

“Well, I’m doubly blessed then. I expect to see Susan in our home more often then. Does this mean I have grandchildren now? I’d like that very much and am always willing to look after them for you Susan.”

Marcus nodded in appreciation.

“Thank you so much for inviting us today and we’re looking forward to a closer connection between the families. Would you be free to come to our place next Sunday? The Mason boys are now scattered around Australia, but Bill still lives in Sydney, and he has a home in West Sydney with a family. I contacted Bill the evening after Trish phoned to invite us here and Bill is anxious to meet his sister and felt it’s time Anthony and he shared some things with Trish she must know if she’s willing to meet him. Are you willing to reconnect with your brothers Trish?

Trish nodded in agreement and Marcus turned to Anthony.

“Do you feel this is the appropriate time Anthony and would next Sunday lunch at our place be an appropriate setting? Our home is not as fancy as yours, but we have a wonderful entertainment area outside and enough room for us to enjoy a barbecue together.”

Anthony quickly answered.

“I think this is the right time to deal with some important matters that concern Trish Marcus.”

As they left the Sykes home that Sunday evening, they confirmed the invitation for their hosts to visit them next Sunday for a barbecue in their spacious recreation area at the back of their home and enjoy the pool if they felt inclined. The offer was accepted and life returned to normal for the remainder of the working week with barely a thought for that promised event. But as they reached Saturday and began to wind down from the stress of a working week Trish began to reflect on her visit with her cousin the past weekend and the warm feeling, she’d accepted the need to reconnect with her blood relatives.

The following day they headed for the address given in Hornsby where the Grangers lived to arrive at 11am. The home was at the end of a pleasant cul-de-sacs with flowering bushland behind the houses inhabited by hundreds of colourful birds. There was a red RV parked in front of the garage at the end of the driveway and Anthony Sykes pulled into the left side of the RV. The red RV was not the vehicle the Grangers had arrived at the Sykes residence the week before and Trish speculated it must belong to Susan. Obviously, the Grangers were well off judging by the size of the home and Cousin Marcus sped out to greet them followed by Susan. Anthony sighted a man emerging from the front door following Susan and turned to Marcus who was now at the car opening the door for Marion Sykes.

“I didn’t know you had visitors and hope we’re not intruding today.”

Marcus laughed and beckoned to the man who stood with Susan looking uncertain. He then turned to Trish.

“Trish this is your brother Bill!”

A wave of emotion flowed through Trish’s body as she surveyed the man standing beside Susan. Tall and well built. Ruggedly handsome but with a touch of grey in his carefully done hair and wearing upmarket casual clothes. She searched for some indications he looked like the picture she retained in her memory of a small skinny lad dressed in ill-fitting clothes who followed the older Marcus around and did his best to protect his sister from the gangs around their area. Then despite the signs of middle age, she did detect a glimmer of the features she remembered. He was so different now. Memories flooded in her mind of the closeness of the siblings in her childhood and she began to weep at the reconnection after such a long period of time. Involuntarily she moved slowly in his direction and threw her arms around her brother weeping on his shoulder. Bill relaxed at this acceptance and enclosed his sister in his powerful arms stroking her hair.

“Oh, Trish I’ve longed for this reunion for my whole life and so have your other brothers. We want to have a full family reunion some time but were waiting to see if you’d still accept us now that you are an independent and successful professional woman who has not had any contact with us since childhood. Your other brothers are scattered around Australia so couldn’t be here today.”

Susan moved forward to extract Trish from her brother’s grasp. Marcus also moved deeply by the reunion between brother and sister spoke.

“Anthony let’s get your things out of the car and head for the recreation area. You need to meet Bill’s family. Their kids are in the pool with ours and Bill’s wife Angelina is in the pool keeping an eye on them and that’s why she couldn’t be here to greet you personally. She’s naturally anxious to meet you so let’s go.

As they entered the paved entertainment area outside the fenced off pool Angelina loudly ordered the children out of the water to meet their relatives and they swam to the steps leading out of the pool closely supervised by Angelina. She ordered them out of the pool area pointing in the direction of approaching adults and carefully locked the entry gate to see the children didn’t sneak back in while adult’s attention was diverted. She shouted at her children in Italian telling them to be on their best behaviour as they sped toward their father Bill closely followed by Marcus’ children who remembered Trish from their visit to the Sykes family the previous week.

Angelina followed in her two-piece bathing suit with her perfect bronzed figure catching Trish’s instant attention. Woman naturally compare themselves when first meeting and Trish felt a moment of envy at this beautiful woman approaching middle age. Angelina totally uninhibited sped toward Trish and wrapped her arms around her startled sister-in-law drenching Trish in her shorts and tank top with dripping pool water and greeting her in accented English with a kiss on both cheeks European style. Trish hugged her back involuntarily. Angelina was so different to the type of conservative people Trish moved with in social circles, but she recalled from her social work the different cultures she had to deal with every day. Then Trish became aware of children tugging at her legs and noted Marcus’ children tugging at her legs and trying to get her attention as Bill’s children looked on. Angelina spoke to her children.

“Greet your aunt properly children.”

The children advanced and greeted Trish as commanded then looked at their cousins to see what they were supposed to do with this new addition to their family. They were used to their Italian cousins and equally familiar with Marcus and Susan’s brood, but what were they supposed to do with this new aunt? The children reported that Trish had played with them on their visit last weekend and Bill’s children looked at this new aunt with renewed interest. Marcus watched it all with satisfaction and turned to his wife Susan.

“Is the food ready to be served Sue?”

Susan headed for the kitchen and caterers hired for the day emerged with trolleys of food and began setting up everything on the tables provided and took up their places at barbecue and tables. Angelina directed the children to their small tables and chairs and ordered them to sit patiently. She took their orders for food and proceeded to the caters to give them a list hovering around the table as they prepared and then delivering to each child according to their list preference. Trish watched it all marvelling at the good behaviour of the children and comparing what she saw with what she observed as a social worker moving around underprivileged areas in the city. Trish went over to Angelina after she’d supervised the children’s food and was returning to see to her husband Bill’s needs.

“Angelina you are amazing with children. You should be in social work with me. What do you do for a living?”

Angelina put her arm around Trish and steered her to the caterers.

“I’m the principal of a primary school in West Sydney. We have many cultures there to deal with. My parents own a series of Italian restaurants around Sydney, so I was bought up as a typical Italian girl with a love of good food. So, you probably wonder how I met your brother. Well, the short story is he was in the real estate trade and regularly bought his customers into the main restaurant where I grew up while completing schooling. I could see him looking for me whenever he’d come in and my parents were not happy about a non-Italian showing an interest in me but I was interested in him even though I realized he must be older than me so I began to watch him when I had time off from study and work in the restaurant and learned his habits and particularly learned he was a good man. He was not a womanizer I could see everything when stalking him, so I decided to take the initiative.

I went to the agency one day and told him I wanted to talk with him privately, and he seemed very happy to see me but probably thought it was about real estate. I told him I’d been watching him carefully and thought he was a good man so decided he should marry me. Bill was shocked at my approach and didn’t know what to say. I told him I was graduating soon with my master’s degree, and it was time he and I to get married as I knew he liked me. Then I asked him when we’d get married. He stammered and stuttered and then asked me if my parents were OK with what I was saying and I said no they were not, but I decided he was to be my man. He told his assistant to look after the agency while he went out and took me to the restaurant and asked to see my father. Then he asked for permission to marry me and my father said no so I told my father I was going to marry this man, and he ordered me to go inside. Bill left feeling rather foolish but was shocked when I showed up at the agency soon after with a suitcase and asked where I would put my things as I was going to be living with him now. Bill didn’t know what to do so he put my suitcase in the agency then took me to a registry office and got a marriage licence as he was not willing to live with me unless we were married.”

Trish looked at Angelina in amazement.

“Are you just having fun with me Angelina? That is just too unreal for me to believe.”

Angelina steered Trish over to her husband Bill and tapped him on the shoulder as he was speaking with Anthony.

“Bill tell Trish how we got married.”

Bill began to chuckle and turned to Trish who Angelina still had wrapped in an embrace.

“Trish one thing you’ll get to know about Angelina is she’s always truthful and sometimes that can be a bit of a challenge but whatever she told you I’d vouch for its truthfulness.

Trish giggled and Bill laughed as he spoke.

“Angelina is the best thing that ever happened to me in my life, and I’d never let her go. She’s the perfect wife and mother. Oh, and as she probably told you my father-in-law was not happy about our marriage, we do have a good relationship with the family now.”

Angelina spoke again as she steered Trish toward the caterers.

“Now you and I will see that your parents are well provided with food, and I need to greet your adoptive mother, Marion.”

She released Trish and sped over to Marion planting kisses on both cheeks of the surprised woman as she introduced herself. Marion smiled approvingly as she hugged Angelina in return and Angelina got down to the business of supervising everyone’s food. Susan watched it all approvingly. Angelina treated her as a sister just as she did with Trish and Susan looked forward to the three of them spending a lot of time together in future.

After the meal was over and everyone satisfied caterers cleaned up and departed. Angelina and Susan departed for the recreation room inside with the children to supervise games as they knew their men and Marion needed to share things with Trish about her future.

Marcus arranged the deck chairs in a circle and indicated Anthony and Marion should commence the meeting as Marcus, Bill and a surprised Trish took their seats facing them. Anthony cleared his throat and spoke.

“Trish I’ve had dealings with the Mason family through your father Joseph for a very long time and Joseph requested I honour his wishes by withholding what we are about to reveal to you until the family felt this should be revealed as you matured and were able to see things as they saw it at the time. They knew you’d feel resentment at being separated from the family at an early age and probably want to write them off, but it was all done with your secure future in mind, and the separation was deeply felt by your father and the boys equal to what you must have felt. I was handling matters on behalf of your father when your mother filed for divorce, and it was not your father’s fault. Your mother could not handle poverty and when she met someone affluent who rescued her from potential rape at one of the hotels where she was employed, she fled to Adelaide with him, and it seems had a happy marriage there though it was something your father could never forgive. He mentioned to me his sister Claire had agreed to take you and raise you as it was not good to have you in that environment where you were constantly being harassed by gangs and unable to defend yourself. Marcus and Bill did their best to shield you but obviously they were no match for combined gangs, and you were at risk. Your aunt unexpectedly received news she only had months to live so taking you was now out of the question, and your father revealed plans to have you adopted by an affluent family so your future would be well protected. He shed tears as he disclosed this as he loved you very much and it was a big sacrifice. It was then knowing we were childless we asked if your father would consider us as a potential family to adopt you and he said yes for which we were grateful.”

Trish burst into tears as this story unfolded and Marion sped over to comfort her adopted daughter until she could regain her composure. When she was able to calm down again Anthony continued.

“Your family made an agreement to set aside a portion of whatever they earned to put into a trust fund for your future education and as each of your brothers graduated and went out to work, they faithfully contributed to this trust fund. I can now confess that Marion and I matched whatever they put into this trust fund, so your education has been paid for by the family and us. But when you finished your education that fund continued to receive those contributions and from a small fund it has grown. The investment company Marcus works for handled that investment fund in trust for you Trish and the ones charged with operating it on your behalf were your father and me. The union cared for the boy’s school expenses up to high school level and I pulled some strings to get scholarships for Marcus and the Mason boys to get them through college. They worked hard and studied and have been successful in their chosen careers. Each has been faithful in contributing to your future Trish and since Marcus joined the investment firm, he has been the guiding one to see your investment grew. He steered some of the funds into emerging markets and hit the jackpot and was smart enough to get the money out before the market corrected. Today you are sitting on an investment portfolio totalling a little over one hundred thousand dollars. In addition to that you have been listed in our will to inherit all we own on our demise. So, it’s time for you to tell us how you see your own future, so we know how to proceed as that investment pot belongs to you Trish.”

Trish got up slowly from her seat with tears streaming down her face. She moved over to Anthony and Marion and hugged them in turn then turned to her brother Bill and kissed him asking for his forgiveness for blaming them for not preventing her being taken away from her family and for the sacrifice they’d all made to build this investment for her use. She regretted the burning anger she’d felt about the family for what she felt was abandonment in her childhood and could now clearly see they were doing it to make her what she was today. She then went to Marcus and bent down to kiss him. She whispered her thanks to him for protecting her when she was a girl and now for his skill in managing her funds. Then she spoke to them all.

“Thank you, my family, for everything you’ve done to contribute to my happiness today. I don’t deserve all you’ve done and don’t feel entitled to this investment so I’d like to sit with you all after thinking about it as I feel it should benefit the family not me alone so give me a chance to get this surprise processed then I want to talk about it with my joint family again. I want to know more about my brothers Stanley and Max and how I can contact them to thank them personally and get to know their families. Thank you, Marcus and Bill, for giving me two new sisters who I already adore. Each of them has different personalities that will make my future interesting and fulfilling as I get to know them better as sisters. I want to meet my other brother’s wives and children too and am so excited at our reunion today. Please let me have their contact details before we go home. Now I feel overwhelmed so do you mind if I join Susan and Angelina with the kids and can I take my mother Marion too?”

Marion rose to accompany her daughter, and the men waved them off happily. It was time for men talk now.

To be continued.

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