I am always compelled to document Patsy’s story and so I do it again here. I am proud to be Patsy’s fourth child. According to legend, Patsy wanted me to be her last child. My parents were faithful members of an Episcopalian church in rural Louisiana in the 1950s. My mother, who gave birth to me in 1958, discussed birth control with the presiding priest at her church and he forbid her to use birth control. In 1960 Patsy gave birth to twin girls and in 1961 my little brother was born. My mother had a very difficult time with my spinal meningitis in 1960 and it was her priest who spent days and hours at the hospital with her praying for me. My mother’s dependence on the priest and her reverence for the religion made her follow his instruction. She did not use birth control.
I have to tell you that while she was making the decisions she made, they were the right decisions, but afterward, my mother was angry and resentful. I know that in the universe of today, no woman would allow a priest to tell her to -not- use birth control, but in the world of 1960, it was reality. Abortion did not exist in rural Louisiana in 1960. Choices were not made by women, they were made by society and often, the choices did not benefit women.
We moved to Florida in 1966 and we never attended church again. She allowed my sisters and I to go to the Baptist church with neighbors, but she scoffed at any Christian discussion. There may be more, there may be less to the story, but Momma never forgave the Christians and that was the end of that.