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july 20, 2021
7:30 a.m.
ireland
[grant] but what actually made you leave? what was the motivation?
[aoife] well, you spend your whole life doing one thing and it’s a real swift kick in the bollocks when you’re forced a change in trajectory. one minute, you’re farming land in your family’s name, and the next, you’re meant to marry and tend someone else’s land in someone else’s name.
[grant] that makes sense. it's a total directional change. and you were already independent, so going into a partnership is kind of losing all that you’re used to. it doesn't matter how you find the relationship, you still have to make concessions.
[aoife] see, you’re smart!
[aoife] but my parents didn’t feel any of those were worthy problems. they had plans for me and i ruined them. they had different ideals of what i could do to help them as an adult. i won’t blame them, though. every parent has dreams for their children and we all push them too hard once in a while. find me a parent who hasn't done that.
[aoife] and for my father, well, i suppose he felt like he'd done everything in the world in his power to make a perfect country, and i think he took personal offense to me disagreeing with one part of the way things were.
[aoife] but i sacrificed everything for our family farm. i don't believe i slighted anyone. i did what had to be done. for one, i barely went to school, never finished even primary school, because my work was the priority. i gave up the only chance of an education and more, and i was meant to walk away from the fruits of my labor.
[aoife] i was young and somewhat bullish. in the heat of it all, i felt betrayed by their asking me to marry.
[grant] and they did, too.
[aoife] they did.
[aoife] now me? i was so hurt, i told them i'd first live with the yanks in america before i'd give up my name and my family for some man.
[aoife] but are those two options not the same?
[grant] i guess one is by choice, though.
[grant] but did you, um, leave to make a point?
[aoife] what point?
[grant] like, “this is how desperate and serious i am, please let me stay at home with you."
[aoife] and now you're too smart. but you’re bang on.
[grant] did they ever get it?
[aoife] they died resenting me.
[aoife] never mattered how hard i tried to prove i wanted to do right by them and look after the family, they never understood. there’s that rehearsed betrayal line. my siblings didn’t come up with it alone.
[aoife] i kept my surname. i taught my children, my grandchildren, and now my great-grandchildren to know irish and i'd death glare at you if you dared use the colonizer’s tongue without good reason. i retold all the stories i heard as a girl, brought you home for visits...
[aoife] i did everything for you kids that they taught me and wanted from me, but it never made them happy with me again.
[aoife] listen, my parents were glad you all existed and to their standards, had good times with you here, but yes, they’d still look at me like they were embarrassed of me.
[grant] but they were just casually cool with seámus and róisín being in america?
[aoife] oh, jesus. i don’t know. they knew seámus hated farming, so i suppose they knew his whole life he’d never stay, and róisín...well, talk about egos. she has notions.
[aoife] their leaving was no surprise. mine was.
[grant] something something, you were a good girl and did everything asked of you your whole life, so they thought you’d do it one more time.
[grant] and now a whole bunch of people make fun of you for the things you did do "right" because suddenly, those things weren't "enough" to please them. you disappointed someone once and they let it stain every other part of you.
[grant] do you still wish you hadn't left? do you wish you lived here?
[aoife] i love you so dearly but that is a question only a man could ask.
[aoife] very bold of you. never ask me that again.
[grant] that was stupid. i'm sorry. i didn’t mean it that way but i see your point and agree. we did just have a whole conversation about how making the decision as a woman to leave and break up a family’s standing fucks up everything.
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