The Story – My
Story - Introduction
Since I was born I
have died twice, lived three lives, fell in love with four men, and am known by
five different names. I’ve danced the halls of a Spanish hacienda, and shivered
in the dark corner of a run-down shack, hung every holiday decoration in
American suburbia, and been so hungry I couldn’t eat. I’ve protested for peace
and marched for war, rescued sex slaves, and fed the poor. I’m famous to some
and a nobody to others. I’m greatly loved and easily forgotten. I’ve been
praised by thousands, but damned by even more. But who cares about all that? I
was born alone in this world, and alone I’ll leave it. I’ve come to realize
that I live or die in every moment. Let’s just say I’ve had a few moments. Hell,
at times I’ve done both simultaneously, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This particular story, my story, begins on a
hot July afternoon in a southern hotbed filled with hippies handing out flowers
of free love, or embittered in a battle of protests for everything from women’s
liberation, to civil rights, to war and draft-dodging. Indian Reservation by
the Raiders played constantly on the radio, and President Richard Nixon was
neck-deep in the Vietnam conflict. In the maternity ward of the Dekalb Medical
Center in Atlanta, a young couple was heard screaming at each other down the
hallway, fighting over what to name the quiet sleeping baby girl being carried
in the arms of an elderly white-haired lady to the nurses’ station.
“Damn it, I’ve already told you, woman, her
name’s going to be Rebekah Lynn!’ shouted the red-hair, freckled-face blind man
at the young woman lying in the hospital bed. In one hand, he held tightly to the
reigns of German shepherd service dog, whose silvered tags glinted with the
name Fritz, and in the other clung tightly to a little boy with bright
copper-red hair.
The young mother, no
more than sixteen, started crying. “But, I want to name her Laura Lynn after
Laura Ingalls Wilder, my favorite character from that book I read to you.”
The two continued to
argue over the name, their voices filling the hall where the little old woman
finally made her way to the counter at the nurses’ station. She looked down at
the young, black nurse busily scribbling on her clipboard. “You were in there
when my granddaughter was born, weren’t you, child?”
The nurse looked up, glanced
down the hall toward the yelling couple’s room, and then smiled at the white-haired
lady. “Yes, ma’am, I believe I was.”
“What’s your name,
honey?” The old woman rocked the baby girl in her arms.
The nurse pinched her
brows together, but finally answered after a few seconds, “My name’s Tonya.”
The little old lady
quickly slapped the paper on the counter and started scribbling on it with one
hand while she held the sleeping baby girl in the other. After a few seconds
she waved it to the nurse. “Now you just go right on ahead and submit that
information now before those two get finished.”
The young nurse took
the paper and looked down at it. It was the little girl’s birth certificate,
and hand-written on the first line was the name Tonya Lynnette.
The nurse smiled up
at the little old lady and then stamped the certificate with the notary seal,
and that was how I got my first name, Tonya.
It’s ironic. My
parents were fighting over the names of a Jewish matriarch and an author of a
book, and my grandmother named me after a nurse, a care-taker, someone that
helps and nurtures others. All three fit. They sort of define me in many ways. Sadly,
my family never called me by my given name, and most of my relatives don’t even
know my real name, nor did the grandmother who gave it to me. Tonya means “priceless,
without praise.” That too is prophetic and quite ironic.
I wish I could tell
you that day was a day for celebration and marked the beginning of a wonderful
life, that it was a beautiful, loving, bright story, full of inspiration and
love, but it only marked the first of many dark days. Nevertheless, it’s an
interesting tale; a roller-coast ride filled with many hills and valleys,
twists and turns. You might want to grab hold of the safety bar before we get
started. There will be moments that will surprise you, cause your stomach to
ache, and have you feeling scared, even perhaps terrified; disbelieving the
world can be so cruel. But there are other moments that will take you to the
top of the world and have your heart soaring as your hair flaps in the various
winds of love, hope, and joy. That’s life, real life. It’s not always a happy
story, and not everyone gets a happy ending. It’s messy, complicated, and
filled with real moments of good and bad. You can’t really appreciate one
without the other. So, let’s go. I’m inviting you into my story. You’re not
going to like everything, but my greatest hope when you reach the end (that is...
if I can make it to the end), is that you find a little bit of understanding,
that your perception of the world and the people in it change just a little. There’s
evil in the world, real evil. There is also pain, real pain. But, there’s also
good out there, and love, real love. So, come on, let’s go.
Till next time,
~T.L. Gray ©2017
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