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Chapter 4 – Philadelphia – Day 3
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Tina: I take it that he and his father were on opposite sides of the war?
Bette: Oh yes. Benjamin was totally behind the Revolutionary movement. And Benjamin being in the newspaper publication business, did a lot to influence the general attitude of the public. Franklin was an old man by the end of the war and was not interested in holding public office. And since he was not a military man, many did not consider him qualified to hold public office. But he is probably responsible for us winning that war. He was well received in France and his relationships was what brought France to our side. And without France, we would still be colonies of Great Britain.
Tina: Fritters are good… just what I needed. A little pick me up sweets.
Bette: I hope they refill our fridge with water. We cleaned them out with these two bottles. After lunch, would you like to go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art? It’s a nice museum not as big as the Metropolitan Museum in New York, but they have some nice collections.
Tina: Oh, I would love to go. Do we have time?
Bette: Well, we will spend most of the afternoon there and still not see everything. Now, we do not have to go if there is something else you would like to do.
Tina: Are you kidding? I can’t think of a thing I would rather spend a Saturday afternoon doing than seeing art from well-established masters of their craft.
Bette: Okay, that is what we will do.
The finished up their snack, disposed of their trash and hailed a cab to take them to the Powell House. The house was filled with 18th century art and furniture. It also had a multitude of portraits of various members of the Powell family. Tina examined every one of them closely. Bette noticed her attraction to portraits and this was different from her past behavior. But she decided not to question it.
After the Powell house, they went and found a pub type restaurant and had some lunch. They had some Philadelphia cheese steak sandwiches which was thinly sliced steak or roast beef, onions, mushrooms and a pile of mozzarella cheese. They shared a large order of fries and decided that a beer was the appropriate drink with their lunch.
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Hi Martha, what an amazing trip to Philadelphia. There was so much information regarding Melvin and what they learnt if him and his life. Poor Bette, I think it’s going to be pretty difficult to explain this all to Mary and her sister as it has obviously hit her hearing all this. Tina is such a tower of strength to her, I love how they are so besotted with each other and hold each other up! I love hearing about their plans for Angie and Daniel, they are so attentive to their children and want only the best for them. The way they talk through everything with them making sure they understand .
Finally the love they have for each other, is incredibly. They way they do everything for each other, they just want to be together, all the time. Enjoying being out shopping, visiting museums, enjoying meals or just cuddling up on the sofa. They are, as you said, the other half of each other !
Loving this so much, will continue on….o hope you are also continuing on, with this story….
Take care and Thankyou, for this amazing piece of writing!
Thanks… I have always thought that the relationship between Bette and her father was the most important relationship of her life prior to Tina. I could see that she struggled to love and admire the man who always seemed to believe she never quite measured up to his standards. But in my mind, I always knew that Melvin loved his children with all of his heart. He just didn’t have the ability to show this to them. His thought was to just leave them all his worldly possessions and they would know. But the truth is that until Bette talked to Gabriel Scott and to Harriett Myers, she would never know how much Melvin loved Bette, Kit, Mary, Paris and even Tina.
When Tina points out that if Melvin had told Bette on his death bed that Mary was alive and that she had another sister, Bette would be in shock. But if he told her that he had known for 15 years or more, Bette might have taken a pillow and smothered him on the spot. The truth was there was never going to be an ideal time to tell Bette or Kit about Mary Southerland. And Bette knows this deep in her heart. She also knows that all of this is a part of the past. A past which is done and dusted. And all the what ifs and if onlys are a waste of energy. Melvin and his relationship with Bette, Kit and Tina is what it was and had its impact on their lives. For Bette and for Tina, it explains so much. It explains why Tina is a part of his will. It explains why the final distribution was 18 years after his death. It explains how he found out about Mary Southerland and her daughter Paris. It explains how Paris was educated in England during her teen years and college years. And it gives another dimension to the personality of Melvin William Porter.
Bette is going to explain most of this to Kit, Paris and Mary in a future chapter. And in their own way, they will reconcile the Melvin they knew to the Melvin to the man they found in Philadelphia.
This for me is the most emotional chapter I have ever written… deep in my soul, I feel the loss Bette feels for the relationship she never had with her father and that is more painful than the fact that she had all those years of loss in not knowing her mother and sister. The reason is because Mary and Paris are still around and there is opportunity to have a good relationship with them. But Melvin is gone and there is no opportunity to mend that relationship with him. Such as life. But as Bette Porter and Tina Kennard always do – they learn from the mistakes including the mistakes of others around them. They have learned a lot from Melvin and much of it is what not to do in life.
Thank you for reading this and commenting…. it is rather gratifying to see that someone sees this story as a gratifying piece of entertainment. There are several more chapters to this Volume and it will continue.