Chapter 24 - MICHAEL’S LAST ADVICE
Michael retired at seventy-four.
Before leaving, he gave me one final piece of advice.
“Stop correcting every family story.”
“What?”
“You hear someone say you canceled the wedding for Livia and you give them a twelve-minute governance lecture.”
“They simplify it.”
“They’re telling a story.”
“Badly.”
“Yes.”
Then he said:
“You are afraid myth becomes policy.”
He knew me too well.
“Because it does.”
“Then fix policy. You cannot police every dinner anecdote.”
Fair.
So I stopped trying to control memory perfectly.
Some relatives remembered me as the furious father.
Some remembered Bianca as monster.
Some remembered a doomed alliance.
Some remembered a maid stepping between a bride and a child.
The official records remained specific.
May you like
Human stories did not.
That was okay.
