Sounds like a title for a Gothic romance. If I had lived in the times of aristocracy, I would have preferred to be a nobleman's daughter. Why bother boarding a flight of fancy to be a peasant in another era? Nobleman, in those times, referred to someone highborn, an aristocrat. Very few nobility have been born in Pollock, Missouri, nevertheless, I consider myself a descendant of a noble man. By noble I mean honorable, principled, worthy. I am the daughter of such a man.
I know this because I watched him spend half a century caring for my schizophrenic mother. He stayed married to her, and true to his wedding vows despite long years of rejection. We kids would have understood if he had not, but he chose not to take his happiness at our expense, or Mom's. Because noble also means kind, compassionate, altruistic, gracious, even heroic, I am a nobleman's daughter.
I watched him become increasingly confined to home as Mom's caregiver. I watched him spend most of his life savings when she needed to be in a nursing home. I watched him make joyless, twice weekly visits to her dementia home because she needed him, even when she didn't want him. And now I watch him mourn for her with genuine sorrow, instead of relief.
Today is Dad's 86th birthday so I dedicate this tribute to him, a gift, from the nobleman's daughter.
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