My earliest memories of my maternal grandfather were those of complete loathing. He teased me unmercifully because I
stood up to him and refused to let him intimidate me. Not so my cousins.

He was an extremely tall and handsome man and my sweet grandmother adored him in spite of his womanizing and so
called fishing trips. He had three daughters. At one time the family had to move in the middle of the night because he had gotten an under age girl pregnant.

I didn't notice until I was about twelve that he was fondling one of my cousins. He was deathly afraid of my father so my sister and I were safe. I don't know how far
it went but I remember my grandmother confiding to us in tears that she had to watch him all the time.

I am skipping to years later at our first family reunion after our mothers were gone. It turned out that he had
molested all of my girl cousins and had propositioned my
cousin's wife. I believe that he probably molested his
three daughters. They married at l5, l6 and l8 to get
away from home, I suspect.

I didn't ever have any feeling for him but hatred and contempt. However, he must have had a lot of charm and
magnetism. When he died the church was filled to capacity and people had to stand outside. They never saw underneath
the facade.

My grandmother loved him until the day she died at 92. She
was so smart and talented. I am not capable of the kind of
love that could overlook such egregious behavior. I am
extremely grateful to my father for being protective of my sister and I. We were never allowed to stay with my grand
mother if he was going to be at home. We never wanted to.
I find it strange that even as a two or three year old all
my instincts told me to avoid him.

My mother and her two sisters were very open about most things but they never were able to talk about their father.