As seen in "My Name is Matilda, the Tilly Rivers Story by Tilly Rivers
Copyright, Tilly Rivers Inc. 2010
Me- the Niece
As I mentioned earlier, I came from a large group of siblings, nine of us in total. Neither of my parents though had an extra large family, considering the time period. My father had 2 brothers and 1 sister. My mom had 3 brothers and 1 sister. My parents always were ‘over’ achievers- good job, as I am the youngest! LOL
Is this the part where I insert a bit of family culture? Sure...why the hell not. Oh, did I mention I curse a lot? So you can expect bad words like fuck, hell, damn, shit and motherfucker in here? No- opps- well- I curse a lot. ~giggles~
Rivers- or Rivières- is-yes- you guessed right- French. (Fathers surname)--Fitchett or Fitchètt-is- right again- French (Mothers surname)- there is a little Clark(Grandmothers surname-and Irish :mothers side) and a little Thompson (Grandmothers surname-and English: fathers side)—so I am half French, 25% Irish and 25% English- good lord what a mix of.....a mix of.....well.....mix of culture. (Tee Hee)
...and now the teaser...we all know that French lovers, are the best lovers- pour nous savons l'art de touche, et vivre la passion au plus plein. (Hint- look it up-- http://www.freetranslation.com/) and hence the reason I will leave discussing me as a lover to the last...of course I know you can just skip the pages...so maybe the lover section will not be last after all- giggles- oh I do love to tease!
Where was I? God I even confuse me at times! Forgive the rambling- it is just going to happen!
Being a niece was relatively easy, we lived a fair distance from my parents siblings, and there was a rift that happened between the Fitchett/Rivers clans involving my Father that I may discuss later, and long before my birth. Wow- you just have to wonder why family dynamics have to be so complicated and filled with drama-no?
All of my aunts and uncles were married, and are dear to my heart, but the distance, both geographical, and emotional between me (and my parents) and them made it easy for me to be a ‘niece’. It was for the most part, a title, happenstance of birth.
To say I have a favourite aunt or uncle would not be a fair statement, as I did not have an opportunity to know all of my aunts and uncles well.
But this I do know, the times when my parents where with their siblings, there was this vibe- an energy of love and laughter that I was VERY proud to be part of--and am happy to claim equally that I am a Rivers/Fitchett!!
Aunt: Kind-a naturally follows...
Hey, I just noticed I did not mention sister in the line up of who I am. Would this be the part where a physiologist’s spidey senses perk up? Come on- you know- spidey senses, as in Spiderman whenever there was danger- his senses would tingle. I am a firm believer that we all have them- spidey senses that is- or a sixth sense.
There I go again, off track, smiles, this mind of mine roams in a million directions at once. They say (and who are ‘they’ anyway and why are they always yakking? ~giggles~) - that is a sign of great intelligence- in this particular case I will agree with them, cause I am a very smart girl. ~giggles~ Just ask me, I’ll tell ya!
Now that the side note is over, and back to my original thought- sister- I will write about being a sister as well. The baby in the family- with 3 brothers and 2 sisters to my credit- or is that a debit? Depends on the day really, and how much they pissed me off, or more like it, how pissed off they are at me ~giggles~ as I do have a way of doing that- pissing people off I mean.
I am pretty blunt-and not pc (politically correct), I say it like it is—stayed tuned dear reader, I’m sure before the book has been read from cover to cover that I will piss you off some how. *sigh* it is not like I mean too, I just do not understand the point of beating around the fucking bush, say it like it is!
Aunt: and for the record, great aunt...
I am the youngest of nine, six living members of the Rivers clan. Yes, Rivers is my real name- after the disaster of my first marriage I took back my name (a long with my life!)- and no matter what the future holds- marriage or no- partner or no- I will NEVER take anothers name, I am a Rivers!
I am me!
My eldest sister had 2 daughters; her 2 daughters have 5 children. Let’s keep a running total-(2+5)
My eldest brother has one step daughter and 2 children. They have 6 children. (2+3=5 / 5+6=11)- are you getting scared yet? Hell- I’ve only just started.
Next sister-1 Child. Her child has 3. New count- Nieces-5- Nephews-1, great nieces and nephews: 14
Next brother- he has 5 children and 2step children- they have 5 children- don’t worry- even I am getting confused, okay, let me see if I can figure this out, at this point (more to come) I now have 8 nieces and 4 nephews, and the great niece/nephew count is: 19-wait it gets better as next brother has decided that he needs to ‘go forth and multiply’
...now this is probably a good place for me to insert a note- a caution really- I am NOT a Christian, nor do I believe in the Christian ways/god or bible. In these pages, there will be comments like holy mother of fucking god- Jesus fucking Christ- and other curse words. That part of the faith I like- they make great curse words- if you are a religious person, you may want to stop reading right about here- as I guarantee you- I will offend your faith. I do not judge it, or you...just a non-believer. We will get to what I believe in later on in the ‘story of me’- but right now, I just wanted to let you know what you're in for. See, have I pissed you off yet? ~giggles~
....still with me?...Okay, but you’ve been warned.
The second youngest in the family has decided he does not understand the purpose of birth control, I mean holy fuck you’d think the boy was catholic or something. (see told ya!)- And this is certainly not something I haven’t told my brother direct, so it is not like I am writing tales out of school-or gossip, my siblings know I am a straight shooter- no filter on this mouth- at least not with them, they are after all family- and have to put up with me ~giggles~ and have to in part take the credit and blame for me- as I was spoiled by them all!
My brother has-drum roll here- 7 children and 3 step children- yeah ten!-and at last count there are only 4 great nephews born (most of his children are still young).
22 kids, and 33 great nieces and nephews-and counting!
I love them all, even if I do not get to see some as often as I wish too. The fact is, as I was only seven when I was gifted with the title- aunt, I grew up with the older ones. There is a large age gap between me and my siblings. The closest is almost four years older then I am, the eldest almost fifteen years older than me.
Today, we (My nieces/nephews and I) rarely see each other, maybe once a year, and I suppose that happens in a large family. The second generation of nieces and nephews, sadly, is even worse-some I have only seen-- maybe once-- since they were born. I guess a family reunion is needed.
That is not really their fault, it is mine. I know that I put my career above most things, or at least I did. Not so much because of the love of money, or success, but for the drive not to fail, and because for a long time I had a huge issue of being ‘poor’- as that is what I was growing up. I learned a very valuable lesson, not to long ago, when my Mom passed away. I will share that in the section about my Mom. She was a pretty amazing woman...and I think I will just wait to talk about her for a bit, if you don’t mind...my parents, and my abusive marriage will be the hardest parts for me to write about in here.
My parents because of how much I miss them and love them, they are both gone now. And my marriage because of the abuse, it no longer holds any pain for me, or power over my memories, but I know it may cause some pain for my children, for while they know some of what happened, they do not know all. And above all, protecting and loving my children is the most important part of me.
I do not regret meeting and marrying my x-husband, for by doing so, I am blessed with 3 beautiful miracles. My Children!!
Let’s keep rolling right along...me the Poet
Continues in entry #4
