I am currently reading a book about plotting. After reading this morning, I started thinking about the what if's not only in the books I want to write and am writing, but in my family's past. It's no secret I have issues with my family. I have tried to track my family tree, something my parents and aunts and uncles don't seem to be interested in. That's another blog, another time.
Anywho, my grandparents had another son before my dad was born. His name was Leroy. Today, I started thinking about him. When I was growing up, if we (my sister, brother and I) wanted to open our presents before Christmas Day and we were around my grandmother, she always let us. One day, she told me the story of Leroy. He wanted a train for Christmas. That year my grandfather had made him a wooden train. Leroy was 4. My grandmother was making little Leroy wait to open his present until Christmas, but he fell sick and died Christmas Eve. My grandmother never said, but I know that has haunted her all her life.
Today, I wondered what if Leroy had survived? He would have been the oldest. How would that have affected my father? How would that have affected my family? How would that have affected me? Would my parents still have married? Would I have even been born?
All the possibilities, all the entanglements, all the differences. I wonder....
Isn't that what life is all about? Wonder. Wonder what might be, what might have been.
Til Next Time--Keep writing and wondering.