Friday, August 27, 2010

This is Mary









Svea: Can you tell me how you got this scar?

Mary: I was four, my parents had one of those metal doors – a storm door – on the front door and it had glass in the middle…my brother was outside, I think he was waiting for the bus to take him to school or something. And he was teasing me. And so I banged on the glass, because I was really angry. And my arm went through. I do remember being really angry. I don’t remember a lot about it but I do remember being really angry.

Svea: Do you remember what he was teasing you about?

Mary: Haven’t a clue. He was my older brother, it wouldn’t have taken much.

Svea: So what happened next?

Mary: I remember seeing my arm wrapped in a towel. I remember which towel it was because it was from a set we had in the house. I remember we got into a neighbour’s car. I don’t really remember much else. Now my mother says that my father had gone to work and so we had to get the neighbour to drive us to the hospital. The other thing I remember really clearly was getting the stitches out because I had to go to the GP, the family doctor, and I remember he had to hold my arm really tight because I kept trying to take it away, because it hurt. And the stitches were really black, I remember that.

Svea: How do you feel about this scar?

Mary:  I think it’s cool because if I ever get murdered, there will be identifying marks on me, right? I remember I had a boyfriend once and we sat around the table trying to decide: if you were missing, what would I tell the police were you identifying marks… so it’s an identifying mark.

Svea: What would you tell the police were his?

Mary: I’m trying to remember what I said. I think we talked about his teeth. And something else, as long as you don’t put my name on it [this]. The doctor’s hand slipped when he was being circumcised so there’s this little tiny bit of foreskin left.

Svea: What do other people think about your scar?

Mary: I dunno, I mean people always look at it and often they say “Aw, that must have been horrible” but I don’t really remember it very clearly, so I can’t really identify, you know. It also feels different from the rest of my skin.

Svea: How does it feel?

Mary: Like kind of, way smoother, and um, yeah. Way smoother. That has been drawn to my attention.

Svea: Do you remember talking about this – the event, the scar – in your family?

Mary: Yeah,

S: What was that like?

Mary: It was fine, my mom especially, she used to tell me the story of what happened because I remember very little of it, and uh, that’s pretty much it. I think she did feel guilty that, you know, I wasn’t supervised enough. But heaven knows, you know, she had four kids under eight, so it would’ve been hard. But I don’t think of the defining aspect of the event as being unsupervised, I think of it as being angry at my brother.

Svea: Has your brother said anything about it?

Mary: No

Svea: Do you think he remembers the event?

Mary: Oh yeah, I’m sure he does. We just don’t talk about that stuff anymore. We’re so grown up now.

S: Anything else?

Mary: I used to think it looked like an arrowhead. It looks kind of cool. When I was a little girl at school you know, the other kids would count the stitches. They would ask me how many and I would say “I dunno, count them.”