2017/2018
Vol. 13

A Tough Decision

c. 1969; Lake View, Iowa, USA

Everyone at some point in their life has received a call from their mother that makes their adrenaline start to run. However, some calls are more serious than others.

The year was 1969 in the city of Lake View, Iowa, and all was going well. My grandma Doris had been dating Bill, her boyfriend, for what seemed like an eternity. However, Bill was a Catholic, and Doris was a Lutheran. Doris’s family was not happy with this.

Doris and Bill were becoming more and more serious in their relationship throughout the year. Doris was constantly wondering when Bill would propose to her, and when she would be able to start her own family with her beautiful, outstanding husband. She was excited, and she had everything in her life that she could ever want.

That evening Doris could hear the phone ringing when she was two rooms away, in the basement. She swiftly dashed up the creaky wooden stairs and into the living room, where the phone was ringing. She uncoiled the twisted wire and nudged the phone toward her ear. She was thrilled that it was her mother calling, because she hadn’t talked to her in forever.

However, Doris’s mother was not happy. She was furious, in fact. Her mother could sense that the relationship between Bill and Doris was growing stronger and stronger, and her mother did not want her amazing daughter to marry a Catholic man. Then her mom announced to her own daughter that if she were to marry the Catholic man, the rest of the family would ditch Doris and would never talk to her or see her again.

Doris had the choice either to stay with Bill and never see her family again, or to dump Bill and stay with her family.

She pondered over the decision for a while, and she went where her heart was. She would marry Bill.

To this day they are still a happy married couple, and Doris has noticed someone in her family only once — because they ran into each other at a grocery store.

Doris is glad that she pursued her heart, even though it was a hard decision. Without her nerve-racking call, I would never have been alive and my dad would never have existed. Even though Doris is no longer able to see her family, she is still delighted with her choice and that she followed her gut.

Tyler Hott; Missouri, USA

This copyrighted story may be copied and/or printed for limited classroom or personal use. To reprint this story in an article about The Grannie Annie, please contact The Grannie Annie Family Story Celebration for permission.

Return to Vol. 13 Stories page