"Opportunity Knocks" by Jean Ashley
– a wild razzee
The “replacement child” and the incompetent Uncle Will confound the social hopes of the mother who takes to bed with a sick headache—again.
Jean Ashley lives in Clemmons, North Carolina, and has spent much of her writing life editing and encouraging the writing of others—first as editor of her high school newspaper, then as editor of Furman University’s literary magazine, and later as an English teacher at Salem Academy. Since retirement, she has had time to devote to her own writing as a member of a writing group at her church. Her family history, as told by her mother, inspired this story, along with many others in Jean’s collection of family stories.
The author’s mother, Clare, and her mother Bertha Timmier,
c. 1920
Author’s Talk
Looking back, I think my writing life truly began when my older sister taught me to read before I entered first grade (no kindergarten back in those days); and as I always told my students during my 25 years of teaching English at Salem Academy, if you want to be a good writer, you must read, read, read—and then read some more. But though I’m indebted to my sister for my early love of reading and writing, the credit for this story goes to my mother; and I can see her now, sitting in her favorite spot at the end of her sofa in her apartment at Heritage Woods, the retirement community in Winston-Salem where she lived for the last eight years of her life—and where I visited her almost daily. Though some of my visits were more mundane, the ones I cherish are those when she shared with me family stories like this one. For her, it was a sentimental and poignant journey, missing as she did the life she had lived in Spartanburg, South Carolina, for many of her 89 years. For me, however, it was a treasure hunt, with each story she told becoming a precious gem to be stored away and later retrieved for a story like this one. Thus, like my sister, she gave me a precious gift as she shared her stories with me on those quiet afternoons at Heritage Woods—gifts that enabled me, in turn, to become the “memory keeper” of my family. I hope as you hear this story, you will also hear her voice, just as I did, and see that 10-year-old little girl trying so hard to prove to her mother that she could, indeed, be “the replacement child. •—Jean Ashley
