Wishing a Happy Father’s Day to My Stepfather, the Felon
We all contain multitudes. His just included actual prison time.
My stepfather loves fresh fruit.
He and my mom spent their 30 years together in Florida, and for all the Sunshine State’s flaws, the produce is amazing. Citrus, melons, stone fruits, berries, even good ‘ole apples — and how that man could demolish a fruit plate. When he’d come visit us in Seattle in springtime, he’d marvel at the Bing and Rainier cherries, devouring bag after bag.
My mother, ever the dietary nag, chastised him. “Your triglycerides are high,” she’d say, telling him what he already knew.
My mom was right, but so was Arthur*.
She knew partaking in too much sugar could have negative consequences. He knew how to relish what he loved. But he also lacked the sense to know when something was a bad idea — or perhaps he knew, and chose to indulge anyways, without regard for what might happen next.
In life, as in peaches.
This is my stepfather.
In 2019 — about five years after he and my mother divorced — my stepfather and his business partners were convicted of scamming over a dozen people out of $3.6 million in investments…
