Daddy Dearest -- Part Three

Aunt Margaret and my dad became very close as time went on. They weren't close at first, mostly because my aunt was wrapped up into her writing career while my dad was coming up, but my dad ran what my aunt calls a 'charm offensive' on her. She says she actually TRIED to hate him but he made it VERY hard. He'd play chess with her and let her win, even though he was fully capable of beating her; he composed a song in her honor called "Maggie" and is still the ONLY person she lets call her "Maggie," if any of us did it we would get a sound tongue lashing; when she was living in her penthouse on the other side of town he'd sneak over there for visits where he'd entertain her by playing his guitar.

Aunt Margaret recalls a conversation they had just before his adult birthday. This was actually before she dyed her hair, lol. "You know, Nathan," she said, looking over him like a mother hen, "have you thought about what you're gonna do with your life?"
"I want to do something in music," he'd told her, "but I don't think I'm good enough."
"What are you talking about?" she asked him. "There isn't anybody around here who isn't convinced of your talent. Except maybe you."
Aunt Margaret was as upset as anyone about my dad's choices in life. He led a practically carefree lifestyle, with his part-time job at the spa and at this time he already had 2 kids and the rumors were going around town that a third woman was carrying his child.
But apparently something in that conversation sparked something in him, because the next day he walked over to what was the Wilsonoff Community Theater (a building that now bears his name) and put in an application for a job.



My aunt and my father may very well be different people but one thing they shared was a burning white-hot ambition to get off the farm. And they got off the farm. In fact, my aunt is now the author of twenty-six books, including ten best sellers. She's had the kind of career and made the kind of money and lifestyle most people dreamed of. Yet she's been totally overshadowed by my dad. You get the feeling, though, that she likes it this way. She likes being under the radar, she likes not being the center of attention. It didn't help though that her brother was handsome and talented and charismatic.