Free The Family Doctor by Bobby Hutchinson Page B

subsequent letters followed regularly, one for each of the children. Dorothy had a fit of hysterics when she found out, and forbade them to have any contact with their father or their auntie Lully, Ford’s sister.
    Tony defied her, and so did Georgia. They both kept up a steady correspondence with Ford, and once they were teenagers, they’d visited their auntLully as often as they could sneak away. She’d died two years ago.
    When Tony was older, Ford told him about the money he’d sent regularly to Dorothy for their support, money Dorothy never admitted receiving. As the years passed, Ford also cautiously told Tony about Betsy, the much younger woman he lived with. Ford never said, but Tony knew his mother had heard about Betsy and stonewalled a divorce, which kept Ford from marrying the woman he so obviously adored.
    Dorothy was still legally Ford’s wife, and she’d never stopped hating him for what she labeled his desertion of his wife and family. Her bitterness and anger had centered around a ring of her father’s. She’d given it to Ford at their wedding and felt he should have returned it to her when he left. The subject came up with tiring regularity, and when it did, Dorothy castigated Ford to her adult children, just the way she’d done all during their growing-up years.
    The situation between his father and mother had divided his family. Wilson grew up siding strongly with Dorothy, and Judy refused to take sides, agreeing with her mother when she couldn’t avoid it.
    Tony and Georgia sympathized with their father, and several times they’d openly said so to Dorothy. The ensuing scenes were horrific.
    When Dorothy came to live with him, Tony had told her he respected her feelings, but he wouldn’tallow any negative comments about Ford in front of McKensy. Ford was her grandfather, and that was that. He wouldn’t have his daughter torn between warring camps.
    Dorothy had promised, but of course she hadn’t been able to keep her word. Her feelings about Ford were like an abscess that never healed, and even before she learned of his plan to visit, she and Tony had had several confrontations about his relationship with his father. Tony couldn’t help but worry what effect Dorothy’s deep-seated anger was having on his daughter.
    Shortly after the letter arrived, he’d told Judy and Wilson about the impending visit. Ford had, of course, written to Georgia.
    Tony said that what his siblings decided to do was their own affair, but he was hosting a dinner at a downtown restaurant in honor of his father and Betsy, and they and their kids were invited.
    All hell broke loose when Tony told Dorothy about the visit and the dinner. He explained that he wanted McKensy to get to know her grandfather. Dorothy had thrown a fit of hysterics the morning of his accident, and hadn’t mentioned Ford or the visit again, but Tony knew she would the moment he was home.
    â€œHere’re your meds, Doctor. Dinner will be along in a short while. Is there anything I can get you?” The nurse handed him the paper cup and thewater, waiting like a warden to be sure he swallowed the array of pills.
    He recognized Tylenol 3 and Rithonol, but the other one eluded him. He gave up trying to identify it and gulped the pills down. In answer to her question, he felt like asking for a voucher for a peaceful life, but he knew this particular nurse was lacking a sense of humor, so he kept quiet.
    When she left, he opened the box of cookies Kate had brought, smiling at the hand-drawn certificate she’d enclosed. Certified egg free, she’d printed with a gold pen. He munched several down, thankful that he had something to kill his appetite before dinner arrived. The food here was not inspiring, in spite of Rene Lalonde and his innovations.
    If the opportunity presented itself, Tony wondered if he’d ask Kate’s opinion about the problems in his family. She’d been