7 Random Facts about Martha E. Bessel
1. She was the eldest of her siblings, and had the classic 'Mother Hen' personality to match.
Sometimes, it felt like a burden, being the oldest of eight children. There was always someone who had scraped their knee or had their toy taken away from them, and they always wanted her to fix it. She could tell how much it irritated her mother that they never wanted her comfort, but after a while, she didn't really care anymore. It was her own fault.
2. She was the most adept tree climber of anyone her age, and even some who were older than her.
There was something rhythmic about climbing a tree and sitting for hours, staring out over the fence where her father's titch of property ended to the Gabors' acre of grassy meadow. It made her feel like there was more to the world than her and her tiny world.
That could only be a good thing.
3. Her father had been a pianist.
Unfortunately, that wasn't a very promising career, and when he'd married Martha's mother, he'd sworn to get a real job. And he had, for a while, until one day he didn't have it anymore. Things had rather gone downhill from there, and by the time Martha was born, he had exhausted their funds with whiskey. They had sold their piano by the time she was two.
3. She would not have survived had they not aborted the baby.
The irony of this was apparent to everyone, and when Melchior eventually began speaking to her again, they agreed that it was a sick twist of fate. Not an act of God, for she had stopped believing in those a while ago, but a sick, sick coincidence.
4. She would have given anything to marry Moritz Stiefel.
He was so good, and so kind and his hair would give their little girls beautiful ringlets unlike her own limp braids. She had wanted so badly for his suicide to be a silly practical joke that she had prayed for it for six years, even after she was married to Ernst.
Her prayer never came true, and it was then that she began to doubt God and his almighty power.
5. She always slept on her left side.
Ernst slept on his back next to her, but as far away from her as he could be while still sleeping on the bed. Sometimes, she would stare across the four inches between them and wonder when the expanse became so large.
6. She loved her children more than anyone.
More than her husband, her parents, her friends. She loved the hell out of them, with their sweet faces, despite the noses and eyes and complexions that obviously weren't hers or Ernst's. She loved their soft hair and their sacrificial personalities. She didn't feel uncomfortable with this. She had never loved Ernst.
So it broke her heart when she had to choose him over Birgitta. She didn't love him, didn't care about him at all. But she was a pastor's wife, and the result was her Rapunzel state.
Safe in her tower.
7. She died of heartbreak.
A stress-related aneurysm was bullshit, and Ernst knew it and Bobby Maler knew it and Gabriel knew it and Thea knew it. Ernst had had sex in their bed.