Ruth

Ruth’s father, Josiah, was a socialist civic leader and worked at the Waltham Watch factory until he got the gold watch. Her mother Helen’s main job was giving Jehovah Witness tea parties and looking the other way when her children misbehaved.
She had Chinese eyes and a Roman nose. She hated having her picture taken just like I do. But she was a beautiful lady just like I am. She could wrap her legs around the back of her neck and rock like a horse. She could stand on her head until she Felt like coming down. That's heady stuff for little girls.
She took care for her cousins during the day and caught the bus to nursing school at night.
At the bus stop, an unnamed man raped her. Uncle Doc Harry took care of the abortion. She was engaged to a doctor when Olman charmed her away.
The day after her wedding, her oldest brother, Marshall, shot himself in the head. I wonder what that was all about?
I dismissed her early. I figured I’d grow up without a mother. She didn’t mean to be gone. But she couldn’t be there.
I found Ruth in bed breathing growly with an empty bottle of pills on the floor. For her birthday, I bought her a wide red bracelet to cover her slashed wrist.
After she vacated her mind, she made her home in Taunton State Mental Institution. She died in a nursing home of predementia at 56.