Richie Diaz
Ms. Lei Lani Michel
English 1001
15 October 2007
Behind those Angel Eyes
As I pull up in the driveway, I see her mowing the grass and not evening noticing that I’m there. I watch her for about a minute, thinking how many different questions I could ask her during our interview. After watching her a little while longer, she finally looks up and says in the sweetest voice possible, “Oh hey baby, I didn’t even notice you drive up. How are you darling?” I tell her I’m fine and that I’ll wait for her inside. Soon after I get my laptop settled in for note-taking, she walks inside and tells me that she’s going to take a quick shower. She comes out wearing a red conservative looking shirt with light jeans and ankle socks. Thirty minutes later, we start our interview sitting at the dining table as I tell her a more about my assignment. For my online interview essay, I wanted to write about someone with a dynamic character that has an interesting story to tell, one that portrays a glimpse of Louisiana life, and someone that walks by faith. Michelle Dewey is a 45 year old woman with medium length, curly dark brown hair, green eyes, and rosy red cheeks. For a typical first impression I would use the words happy, caring, and perfect life to describe her personality, yet her life is much more complicated than that. I know this because she’s not afraid to show her emotions; “wearing her heart on her sleeve”, she openly tells me her current struggles and the feelings she has while dealing with them. The obstacles she faces today include divorce, her only son recently leaving home to become a Marine, her daughter moving out, her life as a non-traditional student, and learning for the first time how to be indepedent. With many interesting topics I could focus on, I leave it up to Mrs. Michelle to decide what focus my paper should have. I told her it was her call on what we would talk about during the interview, so whatever subject she talked about, I’d write about.
With no doubt in her mind, she tells me that she wants to talk about her children because it’s her favorite subject, so I ask her to tell me a little about each of them. She takes off talking about Joshua, saying how great of man he’s become. She says he has amazing leadership qualities that he’s just now realizing he had, but something she’s always known her son having. As she starts talking about her daughter Jennifer, she straightens out the table cloth in front of us. Most people would call her an obsessive compulsive because she constantly straightens things out, keeps them in order, and cleans everything. She tells me that her daughter, Jennifer, is the most stubborn, proud, and opinionative person she’s ever met and that raising Jennifer was ten times more challenging that it was to raise Joshua. She quotes Jennifer saying “God gave you me to teach you patience, mom.” Somehow our conversation about patience led to talking about her divorce. Even though the divorce is between her and her husband, Mr. Steve, in the end it all sums to up to the concern of her children, and that’s why she’s fighting and trying her best to get through this struggle in one piece.
Mr. Steve left her two weeks before Joshua’s graduation from boot camp, and all Mrs. Michelle could think about was “Why now? Why does my son have to come home to this?” What she means is that of all the times this could of happened to her, it happened the time her son needed his family most. She says that Joshua has been through hell, with every ounce of civilian stripped out of him at boot camp, and he doesn’t deserve to come home to be hurt by more changes. She tells me that Jennifer is hurt the most and it shows because of how she freely expresses her anger; Mrs. Michelle worries that this divorce has completely ruined her daughter and Mr. Steve’s relationship. She prays that this divorce doesn’t wash away all of her children’s good memories and thoughts of their father, and that they can still see his greatness despite his actions during this situation. Mrs. Michelle says “I married a great man, a man of integrity, and an amazing dad in many aspects.” She tells me that even if their marriage doesn’t make it through, she wants more than anything, for her children to keep a close relationship with their dad. She can’t begin to describe how angry she is at her husband, with the main reason being that his actions are going against everything they’ve taught Jennifer and Joshua throughout their childhood. She tells me that she feels that they’re strong, solid foundation as a family is broken and that she worries about how that will affect her children’s lives.
There was a moment of utter silence that I took this opportunity to ask her if Hurricane Katrina had affected her and her family’s lives during that time. Initially, she had a look of confusion but soon passively shook her heard saying “No, no I don’t think so.” I encouraged her to continue on telling me about her children. I asked her to describe the kind of changes the divorce has made in her life that no one else knows about and she began with talking about her relationship with God. She’s drawing all of her strength from the Lord to get through this obstacle in her life. She believes that she’s going to get through this, one day at a time; because she feels that it’s important to let her children know that she survives this even when it seems like everything is going wrong. She’s optimistic about building a new family, and tries with the best of her ability to stay strong for her children. My next question was regarding how she felt about being independent and she told me that this is the first time she’s ever been on her own since they got married when she was eighteen. She says she’s filled with fear and excitement at the same time. There are days she feels like crying because she’s so scared, and then there are other days where she shakes with excitement just by the thought of being on her own. I ask her if she could end with a quote that would describe her whole experience through this divorce, and she said: “At age 45, you can begin again.” That quote in itself shows her optimism, her faith in her God, and her willingness to continue on.
There’s so much more to Mrs. Michelle than meets the eye, the only thing it takes for anyone to see that is to talk with her awhile, really pay attention to what she has to say, and more importantly is how she says the things she talks about. All of her actions are decided and carried out with the primary concern of Jen and Josh. Mrs. Michelle stands strong, is a smart individual, and has been given another chance to choose a different lifestyle. She’s in college finishing her life-long goal of becoming an RN nurse, while still being the wonderful mother that she’s always been. Although this may seem like a mid-life crisis, she calls it an opportunity for a fresh start. She tells me that she’s trying to see how the positives outweigh the negatives in her situation. Too often than not, things usually turn out best for the people who make the best of how things turn out. Throughout this interview, Mrs. Michelle has taught me to never lose faith and that it’s never too late for a new beginning. Every life plays a role of significance, some more obvious than others, yet none the less touches the life of another. The once stay home mom whose life revolved around caring for her husband and children is now being exposed to a new and different life. She’s done her part in raising wonderful children and has done her best in keeping her family together, and now fate brings her to a new challenge which she optimistically welcomes with open arms.