“Kit, can I ask you something?” Tina asked hesitantly.

“Yes, Tina, of course,” Kit answered absently, thinking about her own family.

“Earlier when you were talking about losing a family member, I heard some sadness in your voice. You were saying it as if you knew what you were talking about. And now you’re trying to hide your tears. Did you think of your mother?”

“Well, I guess deep down I always think about my mother. She died a long time ago but it still hurts sometimes, though I learned to deal with that pain. I was actually thinking about someone I had never met but who has become a very sad memory in the short period of time I’ve known about her,” Kit answered solemnly.

“I’m confused,” Alice intruded, looking at Kit questionably. “How could someone be a memory if you’ve never even met them?”

“Tina, remember I told you that my own father, Melvin, cheated on my mom and she died soon after?” Kit asked and then continued, seeing Tina nod. “I blamed my father for that for a very long time. I still blame him. He never told my mom or me who the other woman was. All we knew that he went to Geneva for one of his business conventions in the early 70’s when I was still a teenager and he had an affair there with some local girl. White girl, I might add. He never spoke about her or the affair, except one time after a party when he had a little too much to drink…” Kit stopped for a moment and got herself a glass of water.

While she was drinking Tina and Alice sat quietly, waiting for Kit to continue with her story.

Kit finished her water and sat down at her desk, “About a year ago I found a letter addressed to Melvin. It was signed by someone named Elsa and I got curious because I had never heard of anyone by that name before. The letter was short and to the point. The mystery woman wrote that she didn’t care what happened to her but wanted to be sure that their child would be provided for. Do you see what that means? She said their child. I confronted my father. After I screamed at him for an hour, he finally admitted that Elsa was that ‘other woman’ he had an affair with. About a year after they met at the convention she contacted him and told him that she was pregnant. He had no idea how she found him but he said that he didn’t believe her and told her to never call or write him again. She sent the letter that I found about three months before her death. Melvin didn’t want to hear anything about Elsa or the child she had. I conducted my own investigation and found out that Elsa had a baby girl and she also named her Elsa. After her mother’s death, the girl was in foster care for couple of years until she was adopted by a really nice couple,” Kit paused again because she was trying to subdue her tears.