Who Am I part TWO

Today would be my mothers eighty first birthday so I'll continue my story in her memory.
Everyone who ever knew or even met Marion liked her instantly. She was beautiful inside and out. In her younger days no one could take their eyes off her. She was a thin, dark skinned brunette with light grey eyes and a dazzling smile. People often asked me if my mother was a movie star. She easily could have been.
She had little education but was very smart. She loved to read and was well spoken. She wanted to be a writer all her life.
I have heard family members say that basically, my dad broke her spirit. I'm not quite sure what that means. I do think that being a southern woman back then and living in a society run by men is what broke my mothers spirit.
We still live in a society where religion dictates that the man is the head of the household and the woman should be subservient. Just a short rant, back to mom.
I mean if she didn't have babies, manage the home (shop,plan meals,cook meals, do laundry and ironing, clean the house, raise vegetables, put up vegetables throughout the summer) and still look gorgeous while doing all that, who would? And she managed to see :As The World Turns" (her fave) every day! I don't know a man who could begin to do all that. And if there were a man who could do all that, they wouldn't need us because they would also be getting all the sex they wanted!
Jesus, I'm tired just talking about what my mom and the rest of us girls have to do!
As I said before, my parents were madly in love and that's what kept my mother smiling and happy all those years. Though she never gave up on her dream of becoming a writer.
I had a lot of fun with my mom after I grew up. I was in denial at that time. (Denial is a place I move in and out of freely depending on how well equipped I am to handle a situation).
I harbour some anger toward her at times for ALWAYS putting my father before me and my brother Steve who was born eighteen months after me. And for never coming to our defense. She was the mother who would wait until dad got home from work and tell what we did wrong that day. Then he would take off his belt and spank us. Not just a couple of licks. Steve and I often had raised red welts on the backs of our legs that lasted for days! That's because we were usually trying to run.
So yeah, she could be a bitch that way.
She would also say nothing when my dad criticized us, which was on a daily basis. He was a perfectionist when it came to performing any task. I can't peel a potato to this day without thinking about all those potatoes I peeled wrong.
Steve and I avoided our dad as much as possible! We became "PERFECTIONIST" at avoiding him! Little humor there...
At the same time, they couldn't care less about our education. They never asked if we had homework and barely looked at our report cards. (I definitely was lacking in that department after becoming a parent myself)
Now it seriously sounds like I'm moving onto talking about my dad. J. B..What does that say right there when your parents don't bother to think of a name for you? JFC
Dad's father (Ava Wilson) died when dad was two from a ruptured appendix. His mother (Millie Catherine) re-married a year later. My dad had to leave school after the fifth grade and work to help support his family. He worked at the age of eleven on barges that carried goods up and down the Mighty Mississippi! Then he joined the army and was stationed in Japan after we nuked them! He met my mom, (who's family he had know as a child) and two months later they were married.
I'm sure they must have loved us, but as we grew up it was evident that they didn't want to deal with our problems.
When we were happy and doing well things were fine between us. When our lives were a mess they just wanted to get away from us.
They really wanted it to be just the two of them.
Now it is...