Acting on Promises

Abstract Carla was the eldest of eight children. As so often happens in large families, she helped her mother with the younger ones, and took on more responsibilities as she grew. She wondered if her mother, Marti, loved her as much as the others. She didn’t feel as much of her warmth, and sometimes felt pushed to do too much around the house. Still, she loved her siblings, especially the surprise of the late arrivals, her twin sisters, Maria and Linda, born when she was eleven. Carla’s father died five years after the twins came. Carla had adored him, and the loss was crushing. Her mother, too, was devastated. The insurance made it possible for her to go on without having to return to work before the children were grown. A sister and brother-in-law who lived nearby offered invaluable support and assistance. Marti relied even more on Carla, but Carla became distant, irritable, rebellious, and hard for her mother to reach. She continued to do her part at home, out of love for her brothers and sisters, but she longed to escape. She married at nineteen, moved with her husband to another city, and started a family of her own.