Family Secrets by Judith Henry Wall

Author:Judith Henry Wall
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2007-01-10T05:00:00+00:00

Seventeen

AFTER making her trek down to the mailbox and back, Myrna went through her usual morning ritual, arranging the mail on her desk in the order it would be opened, seating herself, and pouring her first cup of coffee.

She tackled the stack of newspapers first, scanning headlines, then checking to see what topics were being addressed by editorial writers and what was being reported in the business sections. She paused to e-mail her children, telling them to read an article in the Wall Street Journal concerning the future of coal.

She saved the Denver Post until last and gave it more careful perusal since it did the best job covering state news and issues pertaining to the mining industry. She refilled her mug, then looked through the front section. Some articles deserved only a glance, others she read with care.

A picture on the back page of the front section of the Denver paper caught Myrna’s eye—a head-and-shoulders shot of a somber-faced teenage girl with stringy blond hair. The face looked vaguely familiar.

The headline of the accompanying story read, “New York Women Seeking Long-Lost Relative.” The dateline was Hayes, Montana, which made Myrna take a second look at the picture.

Then she closed her eyes, placed a hand on her chest, and took a deep breath in an attempt to slow her racing heart.

After all these years, how can this be?

She took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, cleaned the lenses, replaced the glasses on her nose, and looked again at the picture. Then she opened a drawer and pulled out a magnifying glass and examined the picture more closely.

Only then did she allow herself to read the story. Myrna quickly scanned it, then went back and reread it with great care.

Three sisters with the family name of Wentworth had grown up in New York City believing their father had been orphaned at birth and only recently found a letter that led them to believe that his mother might still be alive.

They had traveled to Coal Town, a mining community, in Montana’s John Coulter County and then to Hayes, the county seat, searching for information about a woman they believe might be related to them and might have information about the circumstances of their father’s birth. Henrietta Worth Polanski, who was also known as Hattie, had grown up in the county. The article stopped short of saying that Polanski was their father’s birth mother, but anyone reading the article would wonder if that wasn’t why these women were looking for her.

The rest of the article was a lot of nonsense about the sisters and their careers. The oldest sister had two children and was a fund-raiser for a private college. The middle one was an editor at a fashion magazine and was described as wearing “couturier Western.” The youngest sister was a hand and foot model but was interested in pursuing a career in photography.

The article ended by saying that anyone who had information about Henrietta Worth Polanski was asked to contact the editor of the John Coulter County News.

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