"Hey Malarek"

A beautiful day today, some snow melt so it was above freezing and felt almost summery (compared to what we are used to anyway). Summer better come soon because I just noticed that with all this winter inertia, I've put on a couple pounds. I NEED to get outside and work in my garden and the woods! I can't wait and I think that I'm finally feeling a bit of cabin fever when the end is in sight and it made me feel awfully cranky today. I admit to having to apologize to Don a couple times for that and it has weighed on my mind through the day. But tomorrow is a new day and a fresh start right.

So Don has been reading a book called "Hey Malarek" by Victor Malarek. That name might be familiar to you if you've every watched "The Fifth Estate" on tv as he is one of the program's hosts. Why did Don want to read this book you might ask. Well, you see, Victor Malarek was in the Weredalel Boys Home in Montreal at the same time that Don and his brother Bob were. He had to do a bit of searching on the internet, looking for a copy of the book, finally found one and it arrived earlier in the week. As he was reading it, it brought back all kinds of memories for him, mostly all bad, lots of sad, and as he said several times, just left him feeling wrung out from the emotional impact of it all.

Weredale Home For Boys was sort of like an orphanage except most of the kids weren't orphans. Just kids, who in the lottery of life had chanced to get stuck with families that were so disfuncional that at times they either could not, due to illness, or would not, due to choice, take care of their own kids. And if there weren't enough foster homes to go around, Weredale was where they ended up. But as bad as home might be, "the boys home" was worse. In the best of environments, children can be difficult, some violent, and often unhappy. Imagine then, a group of 160 (approximately) boys under one roof day in and day out, with only a minimal number of adults to supervise and each one bringing a load of baggage that children should not have to carry. But while this is a book about the destructive forces that impacted this group of boys in the early 60's, it's also a story about one of them who overcame a rotten start and in many ways is similar to the story of at least two others, who also overcame, Don and Bob McCabe. Despite growing up without loving, involved parents and in spite of the years in Weredale and foster homes, both Don and Bod became good husbands and good fathers as did Victor Malarek.

I haven't read the book yet myself but I will and reading it will give me a glimpse into the life that gave me the generous and loving husband that I have. I may be truly amazed and it will be interesting to say the least I think.