Another Run Away

I was sixteen working after school at a Dairy Queen and I ran away with a customer. I got in his car and he drove across state lines and we ended up in Colorado. He had a paper drawn up by a disbarred lawyer he knew that had all the legal language of a conservatorship. I was given a new name, with a birth certificate of some baby that had died when I was born. I was his niece, and he was my guardian. I went to school and he was very careful not to get me pregnant.

After I was of legal age I wanted to get pregnant. We moved west and as I was over 18 we got my real birth certificate, got married, got a driver's license and got pregnant. We moved into a house we rented and later bought from the family of the owners. We have lived in the same house for all these years. I'm sixty four and my husband is eighty. I was always the 'young' wife.

My parents died many years ago and I have never found any evidence that they looked for me. In my town there were a lot of runaways. Everyone talked about you know who, she ran away and she's a hooker in Hollywood. I ran away too, but never was a hooker. My face was never on a milk carton and there was never a missing person report. That was common where I grew up.

My husband needs me more than ever. I always wanted to take care of him. From the very beginning, I loved being the wife and housekeeper. I suppose I always wanted normal.

We have two daughters who live out of state and have their families. We summer together and my grandkids come to visit. We don't talk about 'my family'. There never was one.