Just a break from politics today. If you don’t do that now and again, no matter what your daily routine is, you go crazy.
This is my birth mom Sheila O’Brien. Thank my wife Elisa for finding her yearbook photos. When she was 13, she had a sexual relationship with her 34 year old brother and I happened. She was sent to a boarding school. I’ve been to the house where she lived. When it was time, she gave birth to me in Miami. I was baptized in Hialeah, turns out I’m much more a Hialeah guy than a Miami or Keys guy, and she went back home.
Unfortunately she died a few years ago and we never got to meet. I never got to tell her about all the great adventures I went on. From what we can tell, she was good at sports, especially running and golf, and had a semi-eidetic memory too. I’ll be learning more about her tomorrow up in Boston. One of my birth cousins is in the city. He’s also bringing pictures.
Because of what women like her go through, I’m Pro Choice. It’s not that I don’t appreciate life. It is that women should be able to control their own bodies. If they want to have the baby and possibly give it up, by all means. However, they shouldn’t be threatened with jail or slandered or ostracized in any way. When I leave the planet someday, I’m sure she’ll be there waiting for me.
This is my adoptive mom. Arlene Marie (Gabriel) Oliveira grew up in Fall River and Somerset. Her original career was as a hairdresser in Newport. She and my dad weren’t really supportive of my political and creative dreams, due to my IQ, math skills, and semi-eidetic memory, they wanted to be an engineer like dad was, but they mad up for that with the cash they made. Because she owned a Newport Salon, I ended up spending a lot of time at the Von Bulow trial. That’s where I met a particular lawyer as a kid who I hate now. This is long before I assisted in cutting the Von Bulow lawn a few times when I was living at Astors Beechwood.
Even when she didn’t support my dreams directly, she ended up doing so by accident. Because she left hairdressing to become the Assistant to the President of the UMASS Foundation, I got my gig on the Dukakis campaign. That led to me being a speechwriter with Joan Menard. That led to my independent consultant career. That got me my gig with funders behind the Clinton campaign. Then I discovered I could make a lot more money in sales.
I can’t really blame her for being rattled at times. She had no idea that when she adopted me in Key West that 4 years later she would be taking me to a psychiatrist because of serial killer like behaviors I was already demonstrating at age 5. Heck, if she knew that in Key West, she may not have adopted me and who would blame her?? That was the beginning of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The Bipolar 1 disorder, addiction, alcoholism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder would all show up later.
She died due to cancer in 1996. There is a scholarship named after her. She formed my early taste in music, my fashion sense, taught me how to talk to girls at an early age, and made sure I always had the basics. I get the feeling that she and Sheila talk and laugh a lot. She also made me Pro Choice by forcing me to experience The Silent Scream with some of her crazier Catholic friends. Thankfully, the Benedictines and the Jesuits both explained that Jesus was Pro Choice. She was just doing what was best at the time.
Most of my travels, and most importantly being able to travel without fear, come from her. I think having to spend all that time in the Warwick airport dropping off or picking up my dad when I was in grade school set the pattern. The most ironic thing is the major Goodyear Office back in those days was located in . . .wait for it . . . .Akron, Ohio. Alcoholics will get that one.
Without both of these women, I wouldn’t be what I am today. Sometimes, we need to take that break and work on what’s best for us. Showing you how I got here was best for me today. When I talk to them, they’re both just “Mom”.
Quahogs United 