“Are you ready Grandma?”
Her voice was a distant echo in the back of my mind. I wanted to tell my story so badly but, also was afraid to. Will they hunt me down again? Who would I be putting in danger?
“Grandma, are you OK?”
I could feel fear slowly taking over my body and I began to shake. My precious grand daughter wanted to finish this project and I was the only person she knew that could help her do that.
My name is Mary-Anne Neste, although I was born Julie Dufree. I have lived a simple but comfortable life in Toronto with my adopted brother. This is at least what everbody knows about us. I am very close to my immediate family but, have no contact with my parents. In fact, I don’t know whether or not they are still alive. I have a son Isaac who works in politics. This is not what I had wanted him to do but, in the end, his persistance paid off. He was born with natural leadership qualities. Elizabeth is his daughter. She doesn’t want to follow in her fathers footsteps and has been attending the Unniversity to become a journalist, which leads us to where we are today.
She is doing a paper on life in the 60’s. I told her that I thought I wouldn’t make a good candidate but, she insisted saying that it would give us some time together alone. In the end, I gave in to her and here we are.
“Grandma, are you ready?”
This time I answered her, “Yes, dear, but, remember, what I tell you may change your life.”
She giggled, “As long your family is not of the alien nature, I am sure nothing can be that bad.” With that she took out her recorder and reminded me to speak clearly. She started speaking into the recorder, “My name is Julie Neste. I am here with my Grnadmother Mary Neste. She was born on May 28, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois and this is her story.”
“ All right. Grandma, tell me a little about the period of time you grew up in. What was it like to go to school? What were the styles? Who was President?”
I took a deep breath and began to tell her my story…….
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