Answering a question with a question. Always the psychiatrist. Always the psychiatrist's daughter, he replied.
.
Dear Willow.
A friend of mine in Provincetown, which is at the tip of Cape Cod and where I now live with my husband. Cary, gave me a copy of your story to read. She's actually my best friend here, and over the years. I have told her a great many things about my own life and how I came to live here.
What she said when she gave me the book intrigued me.
"Like you. Melody, this girl Willow De Beers went on an odyssey to find her mother. Like your mother, her mother gave her up, but the reasons were far different and their reunion is eventually
wonderful.'
I was born and lived in the coal country of West Virginia and I lost my father to a coal mining accident. My father was estranged from his family, who lived on Cape Cod. For years and years, I would try to get him to tell me why, but he always told me it was one of those subjects better left buried, untouched, kept in the closet.
There were people. neighbors, I loved as much as family and who provided the warmth and security family is supposed to provide, but it was always a nagging question. one I knew I had to find the answers for eventually.
Like your mother, my mother was beautiful. Is beautiful. I should say. Unlike your mother, my mother was and remains very outgoing. In fact, she's an actress, a model.
My mother found me a burden after my father was killed, and she tricked me by taking me to my father's family supposedly on a short visit and then left me there forever. In retrospect, I think it was a blessing.
My father's family owned and operated a cranberry bog on Cape Cod. When most people think of Cape Cod, they think of fishermen and tourism, lobsters and rich families like the Kennedys* I think you would find my story interesting simply because of that. I had to adjust to a whole new way of life, too. but I think the distance between my previous existence and my new one was greater than yours was.
My story took me from West Virginia to Cape Cod and then to Hollywood. Yes, Hollywood, California, where I almost got caught up in the very web my mother had found herself entrapped in. Her capture was a willing one. however. She always longed for that sort of life.
I'm sending you a copy of my story. I think you might be interested in the people I knew in West Virginia, my mountain folklore, the music, and my adjustment to a hard but in so many ways beautiful life on Cape Cod. You will surely be fascinated with the way I discovered where my real mother was and how my reunion with her went. Along the way, I met some very special people in New York and I, like you, traveled over some of the same territory my mother had traveled.
My story is filled with family intrigue, deception, beautiful
people, artistic people, surprises, and many, many warm moments. It is all captured in three books: Melody, Heart Song, and Unfinished Symphony. Two additional books were written as a result of my story: Music in the Night and Olivia.
One of the things I believe you will appreciate is the influence of the sea on our lives. Living in Palm Beach, you were very aware of the power of the ocean. People you loved interacted with it in much the same way as people I loved did, only I am sure you will agree the ocean was even a greater influence on my family and the outcome of my journey than it was on yours.
Cape Cod. like Palm Beach, attracts many tourists, but it is the year-round residents I found to be the most interesting. It is nowhere near as ritzy and opulent as Palm Beach, but there are some amazing similarities, especially when it comes to people's egos, self-importance, and competition for social thrones.
Someone once told me that people aren't born into royalty in America so they have to buy it. They build bigger castles and fill them with possessions as expensive, if not more expensive, than those of European royalty, Because of their peat wealth and influence, they have as much power over other people. Their struggles to keep their position are just as intriguing as the stories of European princes and princesses. You've seen it in Palm Beach, but you will see it in my world, too.
That might be one of the biggest surprises of all.
Like you. I miss the man who was the father I loved. I hear his voice occasionally, and I look for his best qualities in other men I meet and am often, too often. disappointed. But not always, and that's the rainbow we can both see after so many storms.
I see it now. and I hope that when you have a chance to read my story, you will see it, too.
Best,
Melody