Four Generations of Women - Part 1

~ MICHAELA DESIREE ~

Diana with Michaela

Michaela: a feminine form of the Hebrew name Michael (מִיכָאֵל), which means “Who is like God?”

Desiree: It is an anglicization of the French name Désirée meaning desired.

Michaela was born at 5:55PM on a snowy winter’s day in November of 1993. Blue in the face, she was rushed to ICU and spent several hours there until her oxygen levels were normal. At the same time her mother was rushed to the OR. The placenta had torn and she was hemorrhaging.

The next morning, a nurse entered the mother’s room with the baby, when her mother spoke Michaela’s head turned in her direction. They say a developing baby hears its mother’s voice in the 5th month of pregnancy. Michaela knew her mama’s voice!

Michaela talked and walked at a very early age. Always asking questions: Why is the sky blue? Why do people do the things they do? Why? Why? Why? For this reason, her mother sent her to Kindergarten at age 4.

Michaela, from the beginning was sensitive, easily hurt by another’s opinion. Once she said through sobbing tears, “I wish I was as strong as you, I wish I didn’t care so much!” Her mother assured her of her strength and explained that the gift of her sensitivity would ensure that she would always treat others with kindness. For example, once when a girl at daycare was picking on a boy of mixed race, Michaela defended him with great courage and conviction.

Michaela was in grade 6, the first time she ran away from home. She filled her backpack with canned items like beans and other things she hated, took most of the loonies from her mother’s laundry money jar, and left before her mother got home from work. She walked and walked to ‘she hadn’t planned where’ and knocked on doors offering to work for pay.

Michaela longed for ‘normal family’ life. Due partly to circumstances in her mother’s life, her own life at school and with friends, and a deep longing to get to know her Dad, Michaela moved in with her Dad in the middle of grade 8.

For the most part, having pets, two adults in a home, siblings, friends, living in the country suited Michaela’s need to belong. Even here, however, there were struggles, hurt feelings, and disillusionments.

Over a period of two years, she would run away twice. Michaela became independent at a very young age, having learned to sooth herself and count on herself to do what is right for her. In spite of a turbulent couple of years in her teens that resulted in having to repeat the last year of high school to graduate, Michaela seems to have found her place in yet another town with a wonderful boyfriend. One day, she will be an amazing Mom.

Michaela holds her cards close to her chest. She rarely shares her troubles until they are long-lost in the past. Her anger, when it flares, is a manifestation of being hurt or sad. She treats others with kindness and perhaps gets a little too much into their business at times, maybe because she wants so desperately to spare others from pain.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

Related post: Our Families and Why We Are the Way We Are

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