Below is a book review from the May 2013 issue of the Sturbridge Times Magazine, Page 11, about a daugter's quest for family information.
The mystery of mom.
Walking In Her Shoes
By Marylou Depeiza
AuthorHouse, 2011
Paperback, 156 pages
ISBN 978-142994617
List: $15.00 Amazon:
$15.00
Book review by Richard Morchoe
As the saying
goes, the past is an undiscovered country. For Marylou Depeiza, that is
so, but she did as much as anyone could to find it. Her search for the
family story, left untold at her mother’s death was a competent a piece of
amateur detective craft. Alas, even hard work can only take you so far.
Who we are and
what we are is an obsession for many people. Ancestry.com is big business.
Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates has a popular show, Finding Your
Roots, where prominent people search for their background using documentary
evidence and DNA information. The company 23andme will, for a sample of
saliva, tell you where your ancestors come from, if not their names and
addresses.
Marylou wasn’t
trying to find out she was a direct descendant of the Grand Duke of Ruritania.
Her goals were far more modest, though no less important for that.
Her book, Walking In Her Shoes,
is a biographical account of life with her mother, Leola Williams. The
book is an intimate and loving portrayal of a woman who tenaciously kept a
family fed, clothed and together no matter how little she had. It is also
chronicles the later life and decline of a strong woman and how it affected
those she loved and loved her.
Walking In Her
Shoes is a story of Boston from just before World War II through the post war
era. She has it pitch perfect. The elegance that was Filenes is
reflected as well as her mother’s meeting with Mayor Curley. Marylou
imagines her mom’s meeting with His honor. It is as good as the dialogue
of the mayor meeting his people in Edwin O’Connor’s roman a clef about Curley,
The Last Hurrah. One quibble, she has Curley speaking with an Irish
accent he did not possess. The mayor was second generation and spoke with
a florid, stentorian voice, but not a bit of a brogue.
Filenes was a
vision of middle class style and grace, but it was also part of the cultural
patterns of the times. Marylou notices her mother’s job as stock girl is
not the equal of white women who work behind the perfume counter. Leola
brushes it off, but the contrast is stark.
For all that,
Leola was a woman of mystery. Her children never knew her husband and the
circumstances of her marriage. About all that they knew was that he was killed
in the World War II and she was a war widow.
Finality and
closure are not complete even in families where the history is kept as far back
as possible. Roger, her brother found the military files on Leola’s
husband, James Williams, through an online search. Private Williams had
been killed in the service of his country by a violent explosion in India. He
had been part of an outfit building a road to China to circumvent the Japanese
occupation.
But what of the
relationship of Leola and James? Marylou undertook a search of court
records. She would find that her mom did not have a marriage made in heaven.
She got the details of James’ suit for divorce and Leola’s contesting of
it. Their relationship was complicated to say the least. She also saw the
Veterans’ Administration records of the battle for mom’s rights as a widow.
If the marriage
didn’t originate in paradise, the in-laws seemed to come from somewhere far
south of it. They fought Leola over benefits and she was even assaulted.
Still, Marylou wanted to know about the other side of the family.
She continued the detective work to no avail.
Marylou had
uncovered a story that would be considered shocking from the point of view of
middle class values. Yet for all of Leola’s tangled life, the Williams
household, as Marylou tells it, was no zone of dysfunction. It chugged
along through adversity with a strong personality at the helm.
Searching for your
history can be a minefield as Oedipus found out, but who among us could shield
our eyes no matter how devastating the revelation? Walking In Her Shoes
is not a long book. You will turn the pages quickly and regret that it
ends so fast.
Marylou Depeiza is
Boston born and bred. A graduate of Boston State (now merged with UMass
Boston), she has been an actress for over 20 years. Wife and grandmother,
this is her first book. She is currently working on a murder mystery.
Marylou has an author page on Amazon at
