1. Who are you and where do live?
My name is Hudson Catalina-no, not the river but the car, a
Hudson Jet, 1955 and not the car but the island, Catalina off the coast of
California. The book titled-HUDSONCATALINA-written by fiction author, Linda Merlino, is about me, my story and
where I live, Ten Nettles Cove in Gloucester Massachusetts, that’s where we
live, me, my family and our dog.
2. What is your story?
I am thirty-eight, a mother of four children, the wife of a
loving husband and I have breast cancer.
My story takes place in twenty-four hours during the worst blizzard that
Cape Ann has experienced in many decades.
This morning I lost all hope of surviving my disease. Depressed and cynical I went to my
chemotherapy session while my family got snowbound at my mother-in-laws. I took the old pick up out into the storm
after I was dropped off at home from the hospital by my best friend Kathy. I
didn’t tell her I was going to buy all-occasion decorations for my daughter’s
fifth birthday party tomorrow. I figured
I’d be dead from cancer before Annalise turned six. Now I’m afraid that I’m dead before she turns
five.
3. Are you the hero of your own story?
Readers will have to decide about the heroes in my
story. What I can tell you is that the
grocery cart collector that I met at Whales Market –he’s my idea of a hero. Some people might disagree. They might argue
that Willy Wu, that’s his name, isn’t capable of being a hero in the true sense
of heroism. Which to me, means giving up
your life for another-pure and simple.
See, Willy is autistic and no one really knows how much he processes,
but Ruby Desmond, the market’s owner, she said that Willy was special. I believe that. Willy saved my life, I think, I’m still not
sure.
4. What do you regret?
I regret that I gave my family such a hard time this
morning. Most of all I regret not
telling my husband, Jack Emerald, that I love him and not kissing him before I
left for the hospital. Now I’m not sure
whether I’m alive or dead and the thought of not being able to whisper…Jack
like the beanstalk-Emerald like your eyes-Jack Emerald I love you, breaks my
heart.
5. Who was your first love?
Jack Emerald is my first love, my only love and my one true
love. He is my best friend’s
brother. I had a crush on him when we
were teenagers and he played high school basketball. Kathy and I would go to the games and root
for Beanstalk Emerald. I never knew he
loved me too. Not until later, after
college, after his father died out on the ocean like so many fishermen who work
on the sea.
6. What, if anything, haunts you?
I am haunted by my demon…death. He wears a hood and stalks the periphery. Since I was fourteen he’s been dogging my
heels.
7. Have you ever failed at anything or failed anyone?
Today I feel like a failure.
I could line up my whole family starting with my mother, Anna O’Malley
and say yes I failed you all by giving up hope.
8. Do you have any distinguishing marks?
I am bald, except for a few stubborn patches of hair on my
scalp and the front of me is like the back of me and you can’t tell which end
of me is up or down.
9. Do you like remembering your childhood?
Not really-my brother and I had an okay childhood until my
mother got sick and my dad brought us to live with our grandparents on Cape
Ann. My brother thought nothing of it,
but I was a resentful fourteen year old.
10. Did you get along with your parents?
As a little girl I thought my parents were the best-they
were so in love and they passed that on to my brother and me. When my mother got sick from breast cancer
and our world turned inside out, I blamed my father for everything. Teenagers do that-they are selfish-I was the
queen of selfish.
11. What in your past when you like to forget?
I’d like to forget my mother’s wake. The way the funeral home smelled of gladiola’s
and old people’s stale perfume.
12. What in your past
had the most profound effect on you?
My mother dying of breast cancer turned into a familial
legacy. Later I found out that her
mother died of breast cancer as well, and since I was Anna O’Malley’s only
daughter I was sure the same fate awaited me and now I fear the same destiny
for my daughter, Annalise.
13. Was there a major turning point in your life?
Yes, coming here to Whales Market changed everything. Willy Wu, Ruby Desmond and I are hostages of
a killer named Buddy Baker. Nothing will
ever be the same again.
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