Yesterday’s Garbage: The Dignity of a Legacy

The Dignity of Legacy

The attacks Jeff leveled at Imogene during the divorce were hard blows. One filing after another hit her with staggering velocity. Compared to the verbal assaults during their marriage, his strategy at gaining custody of their daughter demonstrated precisely the amount of hate he felt for her. Jeff, and his 1-800 Lawyer, leveled one falsehood after another with such force they knocked her off her feet. Tumbling to the ground, and down a rocky hill covered in brambles, she came to a brutal stop. Determined, Imogene picked herself back up. She climbed to the top of her hill, stronger than when she fell. Every time, it became easier than the last.

Imogene knew her children were watching. They always do, even in adulthood. Imogene knew the importance of setting the example for her children. If she wallowed in her misery her children would take note. If she stood firm and fought for what she knew was right, she would leave a legacy. Jeff made the choice to destroy Imogene. If his 1-800 Lawyer felt that the perfect strategy was to tarnish Imogene’s reputation with lies, let that be his legacy. Eventually, the truth comes out. Like her grandma Jane would always say, “It always comes out in the wash. And baby girl, wash day is on a Monday. That way we have the rest of the week to iron and fold.”

Jeff stopped at nothing to damage Imogene’s reputation. She knew he was snooping through her things, sneaking into her bedroom when she was not at home. She once caught him looking at her phone when she came out of the bathroom. His calculations of ruining the mother of his children, eventually would back fire. Not an impressive legacy to leave your children, destroying their mother.  

Everyone leaves behind a legacy. Your story that will be told from one generation to the next. There is a certain amount of control over our legacy. We are, after all, the authors, and the illustrators. Imogene was not perfect. She has many chapters in her legacy that bring shame, and regret with some of her illustrious moments. Some are black and white, the things we all  encounter in our years of existence. The one-night stands, drinking too much at your high school five-year reunion, which led to a one-night stand, or walking off a job mid-way through the day, just because you could. The colorful ones we keep to ourselves burying them deep down hoping that we can forget they ever happened. Imogene’s past had a mixture of both. She worked over the years to grow and redeem herself. This divorce would become another chapter to her legacy. She wanted to do it right. It may be a failed marriage, but she wanted to leave the legacy of handling it with dignity and strength.

            More papers from the judge’s office came on a Tuesday morning. Imogene felt her stomach turn, because, nothing good is coming from the judge’s office smack dab in the middle of a divorce. Jeff and his 1-800 Lawyer were making accusations that Imogene had an alcohol and drug problem. He also was accusing her of having mental illness. They wanted to have a hearing for emergency placement of the minor child in the home. She felt her roots pull away from the ground. Her body slumped to the bottom step of the front porch. She called her sister and broke down crying. Imogene choked out the details between sobs, so much for dignity and strength.

“Why is he doing this? Isn’t it enough that he wants to throw me out of the house and get a divorce?”

“I’m so sorry. He is such an asshole, Imogene.”

“He cheats, lies, and he was the one who wanted this. I am giving him his divorce but why does he have to take it this far? What did I ever do to deserve this?”

“Nothing, you did nothing.” Her sister tried to calm her. “You are seeing a desperate man who has no feelings towards others but himself. He is a coward and he knows it. I wouldn’t let it get to you; the judge will see right through this. They probably see stuff like this all the time.”

“But why?” Imogene sobbed. “I’m giving him what he wants.”

“I don’t have the answer to that.”

It was then Imogene had turned around to see her daughter standing at the kitchen window. Another building block to a legacy, but whose? Jeff’s? Imogene’s? Creating one’s legacy would be harder than Imogene had thought. Jeff was willing to destroy Imogene just so he did not have to pay child support. Perhaps, he felt this win would make him better than Imogene. The bottom line, this would become his legacy, not hers. What Jeff considered an attack against Imogene was really an attack against his children. She would be fine, but her heart ached for her three kids.

Imogene climbed up the porch steps. She brushed off the fear, dug into her pocket for a tissue. She always had tissues on hand as of late. She wiped her nose and dabbed her eyes. She stood tall on her mountain and found her strength; with dignity she walked into the house. She had a legacy to build.