Every once in a while, my mother used to talk in her sleep. It was usually something quite silly, and I’d have fun teasing her about it the next day. She would just roll her eyes at me.
But one night, when I was about 10 years old, she said, “Oh, George…”
She said it in a husky, passionate way. This was the first time I realized that my mother had a private life all her own. It kind of rattled me.
“Ma, who’s George?” I asked her over breakfast.
“George? I don’t know any George,” she said, looking confused.
I asked her what she had been dreaming about, but she said she couldn’t remember. (Come to think of it, what else could she have said to her 10 year old daughter at that moment?)
Some stories you never get to hear all the way to the end. This was one of those. It’s probably why it stayed with me, after all these years.
Now that I’m an adult, I hope and pray that there really was a George in my mother’s life. Born in 1927, my mother was a product of her era. I strongly suspect she didn’t “get around”, as the saying goes.
She was married twice. First, to my alcoholic and physically abusive father, and then to my step-father, who weighed 400 pounds, and was a perverted pedophile. If those were the only intimacies she experienced, I feel truly sorry for her.
My mother was a beautiful woman and an amazing human being. I hope at least once in her life she had an encounter with someone equally amazing who made her feel attractive and valued and appreciated. I hope that she had reason to have a secret smile on her face every now and then, to keep her spirit warm in the emotionally sterile world in which she lived most of the time. It makes me sad that I’ll never know for sure.
Everybody deserves at least one good “George”.
Like the way my weird mind works? Then you’ll enjoy my book! http://amzn.to/2mlPVh5
The View from a Drawbridge 
Weighing 400 pounds is hardly in a league with being a pedophile, or even an alcoholic. Would you have mentioned the weight of a good person if they were that size? That said, I would have loved to pitch all 400 pounds of him off the bridge of your choice.
Ready for the eclipse? I think it will be noticeable here, and if the sky is clear you can use a pinhole to project the image. Even at work.
As an overweight woman, I have to say that yes, when it comes to the quality of and ability to be intimate, weight makes a difference. Physics apply, speaking from experience. And of course I’m not equating obesity with pedophilia. I’m just giving a sense of her choice of partner and therefore the quality of their encounters.
I won’t be driving to Oregon with the masses, but am looking forward to the 93 percent of the eclipse I’ll be able to see from home!