“Who is that man in all the pictures, Mama?”
“He was your grandfather.” She grips her purse. “My father.”
“Your daddy?”
“Not exactly. He was with my mother for a while, when she was young.”
“Did I ever meet him?”
“No. He died before you were born.”
“But you knew him.”
“A little. He wasn’t around much.”
The boy glances about the gallery. Scuba gear, a model ship, a red wetsuit. A TV plays a continuous loop of The Silent World, a man’s soft French voice narrating the wonders of the ocean.
“I wish I’d met him,” said the boy.
A reporter from an anti-establishment newspaper in Seattle once asked a 67-year-old Jacques Cousteau if he had faith in anything. Cousteau gave a strange reply: “I believe in the instant.” Cousteau’s wholesome public image was at odds with his private conduct, which included a taste for fame, multiple mistresses, and at least two illegitimate children he refused to acknowledge.
Very, very interesting.
A new side to a boyhood hero
It seldom pays to research a hero with any kind of historical objectivity. Most of the “Great Men” were wretched shits, especially to women.
I didn’t know about that side of him. Though it hardly surprises me, on reflection. Good one.
Neither did I, Sandra. No surprise, though.
Ah, Josh, you’ve stripped away another of my childhood illusions. Just don’t – no, really, don’t! – tell me that Santa Claus isn’t for real…
You’ve written that story really well!
I can understand the boy’s reaction – whatever his private misdeeds, to have had Cousteau as a grandfather would have been life changing.
Thanks for the connection to Cousteau’s history! Who knew…
and the way you wrote this felt like I was listening in at a mariner’s museum display.
Believing in the instant? Living for the now. Bit of a copout that, when he created children with women who probably loved him. However attractive they found him he comes across as totally unattractive, particularly regarding his shameful failure to acknowledge his children.
Dear Josh,
Another icon kicked from his pedestal. Well done. So much back story compressed into the few words. You wrote it swimmingly.
Shalom,
Rochelle
Thanks!
Nicely written, Josh. I love how you hint at the man through the contents of the gallery.
Nicely done!
I must admit that I was unaware of the man till now, so the ‘hints’ in your story passed me by. A great way of introducing a legend in a story.
Yearning of child to meet his grandfather! Sweet!
His daughter had a serious case of misplaced hero-worship. She’d have done better to display photos of the mother who brought her up alone.
This had great flow, Josh. Like you said, too many of these famous peeps were shits in real life. Sigh.
It is a shame how certain ways take family members away, only to return for a short bit and then off they have to go
I have very faint memories of watch Jacque Cousteau on tv when I was really little. I loved the show. Never knew the history of the man, just that he loved fish and the sea. Liked your story, though. The innocence of youth see’s their heroes as perfect.
Nicely done. Her sad story enfolded into the child’s new understanding and pride in his heritage. Part of the poignancy is the child not really grasping what it meant for his mother’s life, for his grandmother to have been with a “great man” only briefly, and yet to carry the souvenir of that relationship, alone and forever.
We just never know, do we? The public persona vs. the real man. Cosby, for instance.
I like this a lot. The mother is sad not to have known her father, and her son just sees the famous man who seems really cool. Excellent stuff.
Some men find it frighteningly easy to walk away from a family, onto the next adventure I suppose. You’ve managed to fill this snippet with humanity and yearning. Great story telling Josh
Light must be balanced with dark it appears. The brighter shins the light the deeper the darkness. Nicely doe.