Monday, April 30, 2018

Cloth Doll Story Time - Sock Doll Josephine Talks about Love, Loss and Betrayal


While making my sock doll Josephine, she would not stop talking and telling me her story. Even though  technically I created her this doll from socks, she (Josephine ) chose me to bring her to life and share her doll story. 

 I know this may seem creepy to some people, but Josephine and I do not share the same views about men, women, cheating, and relationships.  I would personally leave him...but this is not my story--this is Josephine's story.

If you are interested in this DIY sock doll pattern tutorial, please click the link below for step by step, instructions on how to make Josephine a doll made using a single pair of socks.
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Josephine’s story was translated by Cassandra George Sturges


“I was named after my daddy. His name was Joseph. He wanted a boy so that he could name his son after himself. I guess like most men. Ok.. but check this out.. My daddy wanted a boy so bad that he bought baby and toddler t-shirts, baseball caps, pants, blankets, shirts, toys… all kind of stuff with the name Joseph written on it. 


When I was born, I was told that my father threw up from disappointment—not only because he wanted a boy—but because he said that I was the ugliest baby that he had ever seen.  My daddy always told me that he was cursed –when it came to having kids because after I was born he had 4 more girls.

I  don’t know if my parents couldn’t afford to buy new baby clothes or  they just didn’t care enough—but all of my belongings until the age of 5 have the name Joseph embroidered, typed, or stamped on them—but the letters, I, N, and E are written on the end, barely legible with a black Sharpie marker.


I came into this world unwanted. My mother had babies to keep my father interested in her and hopeful that one day he would be blessed with a son.  She wasn’t a bad mother.  I mean …She fed us. She kept us clean… but there was never any question about who she loved unequivocally and unconditionally. When I was younger, I felt that my father only tolerated women to take care of his physical, biological needs, and that my mother was a victim of unrequited love. But the older I got… the more I grew to understand that this was not totally untrue.  However, we will talk more about that later.



We weren’t allowed to eat until my father had eaten, including second and third helpings. Sometimes my mother would order pizza for my sisters and I because my father wanted to save left overs for his lunch the next day.
My father had never been late for dinner in my entire life. He had never spent a  single night out of our family home, and he signed his entire paycheck over to my mother every Friday, as soon as he walked in the door from work, and placed it on the kitchen table.

My mother was a homemaker who only worked inside of the home. She never took time off. My mom never watched television or go out to lunch with friends. She was always cleaning, folding clothes or doing something around the house. She made breakfast for all us before we awakened in the morning, packed our lunches, and prepped dinner before taking us to school. She kissed us on the forehead, told us to be good and do our best, and drove away each morning never looking back. I rather envied the kids whose moms waited outside until they were completely inside of the school building.


A fire broke out at my father’s job.  Almost  everyone was able to evacuate the building. Barricaded in the basement, the janitor was unable to leave the burning building. When my father realized that, the janitor was still in the building he went back in to save his life. He carried the janitor’s limp body up three flights of stairs before lifting him out of the window to the awaiting firefighters.  Before my father could jump out of the window himself, flames engulfed his entire body. 




When they called to tell my mother, what had happened to her husband—the only man she had ever kissed, she never stopped chopping the onions—She never shed a single tear… She simply said, ”Yes, I understand, I guess God needed him more than the girls and me. Thanks for calling. Have good day...”
She told us that our father would not be home for dinner and briefly explained to us what happened to him at work, while removing his place setting from the table. We never spoke about my father again.


The other girls teased me excessively in high school. Someone asked me once, while waiting in line for lunch, “How does it feel to be the ugliest girl in school?” I pitied her for asking such a mundane question. The black and ugly jokes were so unoriginal, boring, and unintelligent that I never wasted one moment contemplating the validity of the opinion of people who did nothing for me. 



I was taught to believe that ugly is the observable behavior of a person who lacks confidence in him or herself and have not found their place in the world.” Make yourself useful and the world will see your beauty,” my parents always preached to my sisters and me.


The girls in high school were jealous of me because the most handsome guy in the school was friends with me. Every girl in high school had a crush on him. They batted their eyes and switched their hips in hopes that he would glance at them--even if he didn't bother to speak back. He has always been good-looking and he knew it. I mean... he isn't some average good-looking guy. No. No. No My husband has supernatural good looks...God's Masterpiece for masculinity.
He is so good-looking-- that he is cursed by the gods --because it is an unfair burden to him to have so much unearned adoration and attention. 

Because I was considered to be the ugliest girl in high school--every girl tried to take him from me because they didn't believe that I deserved him. So, they gave him their virginity and their money.  And I helped him with his homework and taught him how to read. I did his homework for him all throughout high school. I never slept with him until our wedding night.


The night before my wedding, I asked my mother why she only loved my father and never loved my sisters and me. My mother told me that love is an action word not an emotion. She said that her love was in every meal she ever cooked, every load of clothes she ever washed, and every room she ever cleaned.  She said, “My mother told us that she loved us every day.. My brother and I but we went to school dirty and hungry before she left my father for another man.”

My husband had three children outside of our marriage. One was with my ex- best friend…my only friend;  one was with our neighbor across the street, and the third child was with my younger sister. The babies were all born within three months of each other. Everyone expected me to leave my husband. Of course, he begged for my forgiveness, but he didn’t have to. I had forgiven him before he even asked. 


I was never as angry with him in the first place-more like disappointed with his choice of women. I was angry  with all the women closest to me who betrayed me.  Even with their good looks, their perfect bodies, and their feminine charms… they still couldn’t take him away from me—just like my father-- every Friday he signed over his entire paycheck to me, every night he rubbed my feet and snuggled his beard in the crook of my neck, and every morning we were intimate is some manner before we both left for work.


My husband is incapable of cheating on me, because I know who he is, inside out… all of his flaws.. . I chose to love him unequivocally and unconditionally—for who he is and not some idealistic fantasy of  perfection based on who I want him to be. I know who I married and why I married him…
Women deceive  other women into believing that men oppress women… that men are the enemy to be feared ; Nevertheless,  I have never found a human being to be more treacherous, devious, and conniving than a woman who is envious  of you and believes that she deserves what you have simply  because of her beauty.
 

One-day men are going to wake up and see that they are not the hunters but the hunted; they are not the predator but the prey. Women run this world by pretending to be helpless and innocent especially when she wants to usurp a man’s wealth, power, and prestige. 


Men built this world with his hands, but only because he was commanded to do so for and by women.  Women build men up and they tear men down at their own discretion—especially when she is  annoyed, ignored, or when she wants to purr and let the world know who is really in charge. Men are useless without women; they are collateral damage of a woman’s wrath.


Women come on to my husband without so much as a single thought of how they are hurting me. I find women in general to be cruel and callous beings who take no accountability for their power…always pretending to be victims of circumstance.
  
Josephine with sock doll Mermaid Geraldine--her only Loyal Friend


As I got older, I understood why my father always wanted a son…

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