Isabelle
The portrait of a beloved aunt is drawn by family opinion and stories.
"Gee, she looks fierce" my daughter says.
Her dark face grimaces from sepia,
a ragged grin, she's encased in Sunday best
black, brimmed hat, square, sensible shoes.
Her daughter holds her youngest child.
"That's my Aunt Isabelle" I tell her as she recoils.
"Oh," she says. I can feel her pull inward.
She doesn't remember how Isabelle cradled her,
warning that the carpet was too dirty for her to crawl.
A garish polyester quilt shocked her father's sensibilities.
But Isabelle downplayed her generosity,
"It's just something to throw on the floor for her to play."
"She is such a slob," my sister jeers,
"Why couldn't she at least dress up for mom's funeral?"
Aunt Izzy hobbles on a cane, greeting mourners,
that ragged grin wry and wise, knowing
where my mother's soul will finally rest.
She knew too well the pain of death,
her son riding a motorcycle at sixteen.
The memory still shadows her eyes.
"It's a postcard from Izzy." Dad reads how his sister discovered
the restaurant toilet outside the backdoor in an Eastern European town.
Postcards filled a shoebox with tales of her adventures around the world.
She led my father through dances at the Blue Bird
until he got up the courage to ask my mother.
"That story grows wilder every time she tells it," Uncle Harvey howls to this day.
She explained her dark coloring by telling
of a grandmother's rape
in an Iowa cornfield by someone passing by.
He morphs from Cherokee chief to circus roustabout.
It may have been the boy from the neighboring farm.
Even when the family lived in a mink barn, there was always a piano.
Their poverty was so much different from Mom's family,
where joy was sparse.
Isabelle's gabled and gardened house sheltered
family and friends. I remember a barbeque there,
all my cousins, the old ones laughing out loud.
Vagrants warmed themselves in her vacant house after she died,
burning sheets of genealogy that traced us back to Scottish lairds.
If you enjoyed this post, feel free to explore other writings in the Ring Around the Basin Archive. I also love to read your comments, so please share your thoughts. Let’s start a conversation. And if you wish to support my writings, please consider subscribing or upgrading to a paid subscription. It’s now only $50/year. Even better, I would appreciate it if you could share Ring Around the Basin with your friends. Thank you!
All my books, Paradise Ridge, When the Horses Come and Go, and Ghost in the Forest are currently available on Kindle. Ghost in the Forest, is also available in paperback. Paradise Ridge is out-of-print, but the Kindle version is re-edited and better quality.
Book Review of Ghost in the Forest:
"Ghost in The Forest' is a great read! Take note People. If you love stories about environmentalism and nature, its clash with urban mindsets, as well as personal transformation, this is the book for you!
"Ghost in The Forest" is a quick 126-page read. It's the story of Dori, a woman trapped in a mix of grief over parental loss and refusing to accept how her hometown and her friends have changed over the years. Because of this, Dori has become a recluse and a self-imposed misanthrope who finds more comfort amongst the hiking trails around her hometown of Morristown than in her dealings with the raw reality of other humans.
The book, in some ways, resembled Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire” in that the story follows a protagonist's love of nature and angst about humans encroaching on it. In this case, it’s how Morristown is transforming into a mountain biking destination where cyclists run rampant on trails and nature.
However, a tragedy involving said mountain biking becomes a major pivot point for Dori, leading to a series of events that eventually bring about personal evolution and discovery.
If you're a nature lover, this book is a must-read. It beautifully portrays the clash between environmentalism and urban mindsets and the journey of personal transformation. The book's vivid descriptions of nature and the protagonist's love for it will surely intrigue you.
Paradise Ridge Review by western author D. B. Jackson:
If you draw circle roughly around an area that includes northern Nevada, southern Oregon, and southern Idaho, within that circle exists a culture and people who live a lifestyle largely untouched by modern values. These are the "buckaroos" and Basque characters author Sue Cauhape brings to life in her literary novel, "Paradise Ridge".
Leandro, the illegitimate seventh son of patriarch Xavier Arriaga and his mistress, Gisela, is at the center of this intriguing story that travels exceedingly successfully at both the personal level of the characters, as well as the compelling level where the story is told.
Cauhape writes in a literary style that reminds me of Annie Poulx. Paradise Ridge, on the surface, appears to be an upscale Western novel...once inside the pages, you will soon discover a potential classic waiting to be discovered.
I rated this book a 5...because that's all the stars there were.
Oh, Sue, this is so very beautifully constructed - what an amazing poem. Incredible work. I need to pause a while before I read anything else!
Some people who are gone can never be forgotten.
Thanks, Sue.