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Show in my father's house/ 68 introvert. Aunt Rachel, who lost her "other half" while very young, found both mother and twin in Aunt Gerda. While Aunt Gerda hostessed in the white house parlor, Aunt Rachel bore children, tolerated their noise and dirt, yet maintained a youthful kind of rebellion in her soul. Aunt Rachel warned the children that scouring powders would age their hands, but Aunt Gerda taught them to plunge their fingers into hot dishwater. Aunt Rachel fed the children hunks of hot white bread dripping with honey, but Aunt Gerda gave them bitter Brigham tea and thin slices of whole wheat. Aunt Rachel lolled with the half-naked children on mattresses tossed on the bedroom floor and talked with them as though they were small adults, but Aunt Gerda brusquely pinned and twisted them into the new clothes she was always making, and spoke to them only in reprimand. In a similar way, my mother bore children, pursued domestic order, played the piano with a virtuoso's touch and got sick, while Aunt Helga delivered children, pursued a career alongside my father, led the singing with her strong alto, and stayed healthy. Together they were two halves of a whole -- Moses and Aaron, the spirit and the spoken word. |