October PrepMo 2015

Freestyle Brainstorm

Ella Jana Danbury was born April 4, 1933, almost a year after her parents married. Her childhood, by all accounts, was happy although she and her younger sister would be raised by wet nurses as her parents were off helping her father’s business grow and spread. Two years later, Brenna Emily would be born on October 3, 1935. It would be just the two of them until shortly after Ella’s fifth birthday when their brother Pierce would be born.

From that moment on, Ella and Brenna would always feel like the odd ones out, the black sheep. The worlds in which Ella and Brenna grew up were different than the one in which their eleven siblings would grow up. After Pierce was born, their mother remained home almost entirely while their father was gone periodically for business. Also, after Pierce was born, their mother would be pregnant almost constantly, expanding their family. Once Ella turned twelve, she was sent off to a boarding school in Vermont where she would remain until she graduated. Brenna, once she also turned twelve, would be sent off here too.

After Ella’s first year away at boarding school, their family up and moved to the Florida Keys after a vacation spent there made their father realize his life didn’t need to be spent running the business. He would spend a lot of time at home during this time. Sherman also thought of keeping Ella at home and bringing in tutors, like he had done as a child, but Ella refused. Ella hated Florida and fought to go back to the boarding school. Surprised, Sherman relented and Ella went back the following year. Brenna also decided to go to the boarding school as she and Ella were extremely close.

Ella would eventually stop going back home all together and instead stay at her aunt Lorelei’s house during the holidays and during the summer. Brenna would also eventually do this as well. Ella and Brenna would continue to have an extremely close relationship until Ella’s death in 2012. After Ella graduated in 1951, she would stay with her aunt and would write letters to her parents, while receiving yearly updates of her new siblings, including pictures. In 1954, Ella would meet Richard Colvin at her aunt Lorelei’s fifty-fifth birthday party, being a son of one of her uncle’s friends.

They would hit it off almost immediately, talking often and enjoying each other’s company. They would court for a year and a half before Richard would propose on a vacation trip in Italy, which Ella would accept. A year later they would wed in her aunt’s church, with her parents in attendance.

Richard was a pediatrician who owned his own successful practice in Franklin Heights, a well-to-do neighborhood 50 miles north of New York City. They would purchase a home here where they raise their family until their divorce in in 1963. A year and a half into their marriage, Ella would find out she was pregnant with their first child. Richard was thrilled to find they were starting their family. Ella herself was excited to start her family with a man who had made her happy and in her mind, rescued her from her family (or as she had written in her journal, lack of one).

On February 14, 1958, Gregory Pierce Colvin was born. Richard was happy to have a son and Ella was happy to be a mother. She was a natural at it and especially with her shy personality, loved the closeness she shared with her son.

Even though they could’ve afforded a nanny, Ella refused. Ella herself had been raised by a wet nurse and she wanted her children to be raised by her. Ella believed being a mother was what she was born to do and she threw herself into it. This would eventually lead to the downfall of her marriage with Richard.

By all accounts, Richard completely adored his wife and the fact that she was such a natural at being a mother made him love her even more. Being an upper-middle class, usually women only thought of having children as a duty to the marriage and would welcome a brood of nannies and servants if it meant she could still live her life. Knowing that his wife was the opposite of that, gave him a feeling of superiority over his colleagues.

Nearly a year and a half later, Ella would find herself pregnant a second time. This time it would be a girl she would give birth to on November 29, 1960 and name her Erin Alma Colvin. Ella was excited to have a girl, now having one of each.