During the early 1940’s the Hamilton sisters all reside in Detroit. Christener found a job working as a hostess at the Ponchitrain hotel. The chef caught her eye Leroy Fernandez. The couple play cat and mouse for a few months then began dating. The courtship lasts a couple of years before the jump the broom at St Joseph’s Church in a lovely ceremony until death do them part. The union produced four children.
Leroy stacked his earnings until he purchased his first restaurant the M&F Grill. Profits from the business soon afforded the couple to purchase their first home. Not long after the family move into their new home in the Greenfield Garden subdivision on the city’s west side. Gerthugh the middle sister and her husband QB living in an apartment on east Warren follow suit. They buy a home on Coyle and Pembroke.
Ruth Ella the eldest sister and main character lived in a rented house on Waterloo. Her husband Walter had long since past leaving her alone to raise one child. Years pass and Ruth was still stuck in the same old house on the east side. Then one evening at a weekly gathering Leroy announced that he had bought some land in An Arbor, MI where he planned to build a house from the ground up.
Green with envy Ruth longed for her day in the sun. She did everything she could short of grand larceny to muster a down payment on a house, but as a single mother nearing retirement she could barely meet her monthly bills. The frustration of being left behind festered in her heart so that she wished ill will on her sisters.
Then one night in November of 1968 about a week before her youngest daughter’s birthday, the unthinkable happened. Christener checked out, she died quietly in her sleep of a massive heart attack. This sudden blow took its toile on the entire family. It was a bleak day for the Fernandez – Hamilton- Womack Family.
You know how friends and family rush to your side bearing condolences and casseroles. It was no different in this case. The very next morning early Gerthugh, Ruth, and QB arrived. Gerthugh and Ruth set out to clean the house and comfort the children.
Heartbroken Ginger spent the better part of the day to herself mourning alone in her room playing the appropriate music for the occasion. She cannot very well tell you what the others were doing until she heard piercing voices penetrate her brain. Merely on impulse, she jumped up and ran out into the hall. She got there just in time to witness a catfight between Ruth and Gerthugh. Shoes were flying, cloths ripped, hair pulling and eye gouging. The claws were out and the girls were brawling in an old-fashioned knock down drag out.
It came out later that Leroy returned from the restaurant to find Ruth Ella rambling through him and Christener’s personal papers and such… in his room. Like a white tornado, Ruth riffled through everything she could find. Ruth and Leroy were natural enemies. There was a rift so wide between them. He trusted her about as far as he could toss her. She used to work for him and he caught her with her hand in the till. That was enough for him he fired her on the spot. So naturally, when he discovered her rifling through his things he flew into a rage.
The two went at it until Gerthugh came to the rescue. Gerthugh kept him from going to jail for putting a whooping on Ruth Ella… he tried to snatch a knot in her ass. Ruth had her own agenda she took that ass whopping to keep her true intensions secret… she endured a beat down that nearly hospitalized her.
No one at the time knew about the letter that Christener had written to her children… not to read upon her demise. They all later found out that the note accompanied an inheritance…cash stored in a strong box to divide among her children upon her death. She saved enough over the years to give each of her children five thousand dollars apiece.
Mild mannered QB let the girls fight that day until it got ugly. Then like a superhero, he swooped in and separated the girls. He grabbed both of them in the collar drug them out on the porch and closed the door to cool off. There was a foot of snow on the ground and the temperature hovered just above freezing. QB showed no mercy he refused to allow them back in the house until they called a truce.
Thoroughly chilled to the bone the sisters gave up and apologized for their childish skirmish. QB let them back in the house. Sufficiently chilled the sisters came in and went to their natural corners until he saw fit to take them home. The following day the rest of the siblings began to arrive from Temple bag and baggage. Of course, Ginger perked up when she met brothers and sisters. Some she never knew existed, but she did not give a damn she bonded instantly with all of them. They sat up all night and for days on end exchanging stories about growing up with their mother.
During the course of conversation, it came out that Christener was supposed to have left each of the children some money. Author one of the older brothers authenticated they story with the elders in the family. For days, they all searched for the package, but never recovered it.
After the funeral, everybody returned to his or her perspective homes and got on with the business of living. Ruth Ella living off her life savings and Glenda working a minimum wage job out of the clear blue came up with enough money to buy a house.
Ginger eventually found out purely by chance that what actually happened on that day after her mother’s death was that Gerthugh thought she caught Ruth stealing. Later on down the line, ten years to be exact Ruth finally confessed to Gerthugh that she had in fact stolen Christener’s children’s inheritance.
Rumors floated abound through the family for nearly twenty years. Then one day when Author Neal came back to Detroit, he confronted Ruth about the money. Knowing that her time was limited, she fesses up. Unfortunately, though it was too late for the kids to know just what their mother had to tell them.
In haste to hide, her dirty little secret Ruth disposed of the letter. She not only took away her inheritance, but that she took from them their mother’s last words. She had a house and the kids were left in the dark.
Ginger’s words on the subject:” I don’t know if I ever forgave her, but I did find it in my heart to let it go!
