It all started exactly one week ago. We knew the day before that our grandma was very ill. We also knew several relatives were coming down to see her. For that reason, we were told to clean the house as soon as we got home. At 3:30 Joey, Angie, and I bounded off the bus happily, excited about seeing our cousins. We ate chocolate pudding as our after-school lunch, watched “OPRAH” on T.V., danced around to Footloose, and did basic cleaning.
I remember the phone kept ringing, interrupting me as I made supper. My mom called a couple times for messages and info about the relatives. One time my cousins called and we all talked to Katie. Katie is now 12, but we haven’t seen her since she was about 9 years old. There was a big dispute between Katie’s mom and the rest of the family that kept us apart. It’s hard to tell exactly when it started. It could’ve started when Grandma was driving at night with Katie in the car when Katie was about 6 or 7. My grandma accidentally went off the edge of the road and into the ditch. Katie wasn’t hurt in the least; in fact, she was sleeping in the back seat at the time, and when the car was stopped she rolled onto the floor and continued to sleep. But for some reason Martha was very upset. She wrote a cruel letter to my Grandma that is believed to have caused her to have a minor heart attack, which began a series of medical problems.
I think Lou had a lot to do with the bitterness between Martha and the rest of the family which developed later on. Lou is Martha 2nd husband. She remarried about 4 or 5 years ago, after having written to him several times. That is how they met. I think it was Martha who put the ad in the paper about wanting a pen pal. They began to write to each other, then talked on the phone. After a while, Lou came to visit and soon they were married. Ever since then, things became heated. Lou is a quiet, fat, and bald man. He barely talks to the adults and never smiles. One of the first things he did were to make Katie give all her toys away. Many were given to us. Soon Katie was calling him “Daddy,” whether by force or choice, I’m not sure.
It is also believed by some that it started a couple summers ago, when we all got together to clean Grandma’s house. Apparently George made a small comment to Martha that some of us already knew what we were getting. George doesn’t remember saying that, but Martha said he did & ever since Martha’s been writing extremely wicked letters to Grandma, saying we were stealing her [Grandma's] money, we were not letting Martha have any of Grandma’s things, and that she was going to take us to court when Grandma dies. Then she tells Grandma that she [Martha] & Jesus love her, & we’ll be punished by God.
