The Curse of the Twenties

An Explanation

An explanation

I must’ve been the year 1997 or 1998 when I skipped through the kitchen and caught my mom crying on the phone. She was clenching the cord of the phone tightly as she sobbed as I watched her, my heart broke for her even though I had no idea why she was crying. I was only seven or eight years old at the time, but no one likes to see their mom cry. She was speedily firing questions in her first language (English was her second language) through her sniffs and I cautiously walked over to her and hugged her tightly.

I had no idea what was going on. My mom was the strongest person I knew in my life and she never cried. Ever. The time I caught her crying was when she absolutely could not handle the situation and broke down into heavy tears... and that was when her dad died a few years before. We lived in a different country to the rest of my mom’s family. Our grandma and a few cousins, aunts and uncles that lived here were from my dad’s side. Back to the point, my mom let go of the cord and held me tightly, she was always there to hug me when I cried and now it was my turn to hug her while she cried.

“... how did it happen?” I managed to understand some of our native language. “Shet! I can’t believe it!”

I never let her go for the next hour she was on the phone. When she finally hung up my dad had come home and he was hovering over my mom, watching her with eyes that glowed with concern and love. My mom turned to him before explaining what happened in two words.

“Marie died”

Hours of speedy talking and crying over the phone had been shortened to two words and it struck me hard. It still does up to now... about sixteen years later. My dad stilled and broke down into tears as well.

Marie was my favourite cousin. She was so pure and loving and beautiful that I just knew she was an angel in disguise. She was also my god mother. She was the daughter of my mom’s sister and my dad’s brother (yeah, my parents’ siblings married. Kind of cool right?) I didn’t bother choking back tears... I didn’t think my mom knew I was listening because my instant crying shocked her and together my parents and I cried together.

***

I always thought that horrible day was just ‘one of those days’, where life takes a turn as it does with everyone in the world. It wasn’t until I was in grade seven, my last year in primary school, when I had to write up a family tree that I found out about my dad’s sister.

My dad’s dad passed away due to lung cancer and my dad’s family was distraught; completely unravelled and unsure on what to do because he was one of those men who were so knowledgeable of everything in the world. Retired Captain of the Air Force and entrepreneur, he was an amazing man. My dad’s sister was only in her early twenties when she was somewhat forced into marrying a rich shipping company owner. According to my dad, she was unsure because she was always under the wing of her dad; not ever being allowed to walk around the corner without an escort. So marriage... marriage was a big thing. But she was prodded into marrying him because he could provide for her and she had an admiration for him and learned to love him. Was she ever in love with him? I wasn’t sure.  To put it short, they were married and had a baby girl – my cousin. I’m unclear of the details, but they ended up divorcing and she moved countries with her daughter as a single mother, still new to the world as an independent woman.

Are you keeping up? Okay... don’t worry I’ll get to my story really soon!

Now my cousin, the one you just read about... she grew up to be a brilliant woman. Extremely shy because she was a curvaceous woman but she was as intelligent as they came. Top of her class and in her last year of university studying law.

She was in her early twenties when The Curse struck.

It started as a cough. Simple, no? However, by the time she went to the doctor and was told to get an x-ray she had found out that she had pneumonia. Bad. It was only two weeks later that she fell into a coma and had her cardiac arrest. She was technically dead for... I don’t know how long... until they were able to revive her. Weeks in ICU and the doctors told us she wouldn’t live for another month. However, months passed and although she was able to be nursed at home... she is now disabled – mentally and physically.

***

Now there’s me and my other cousin (I have a lot of cousins). We’re born the same year but I’m a few months older. Now, how do I explain this? My cousin and I are complete opposites. She didn’t care for rules and was well, a bad ass I guess. She was the one who introduced me to my first alcoholic beverage at the age of fourteen (when, you know, we snuck out of the house in the middle of the night...)

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love that girl like she’s my sister but I wasn’t surprised when I found out she was got into some bad habits by the time she reached her early twenties. Smoking, drinking, drugs and so on. She started doing those hard drugs and didn’t care for whatever I said or anyone else.

She’s getting better though.

These are the women I know of The Curse taking place... all in their early twenties and all life changing experiences, for not just them but the people who love them too.