The Dostoevskian Rhapsody Poem by Justin Reamer

My mother lived a long life,
And many parts of it were good,
But others, she continued to struggle,
But she still managed to pull on through.
Her life is a long one,
Chronicled with many events and changes,
But this rhapsody suits it well,
As Matthias gives me the story to tell.

My mother, Marjorie Sue Weber Reamer, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
On September 2,1963,
And grew up in Dorr.
Her family was very poor,
But they managed to get by.
Her father—my grandfather—
Was Sylvester ‘Les’ Weber,
A musician of talent.
He played bluegrass with his boys,
His friends, really,
Playing the banjo, mandalin,
Guitar and fiddle.
He played background for Earl Scruggs once,
Quite some time ago in his youth,
And he loved to play that banjo still,
Playing ‘Fox on the Run, ’
‘Orange Blossom Special, ’
And many other famous songs.
Les worked as a mechanic, an electrician,
And a very good technician.
He knew what he was doing.

Her mother—my grandmother—was
Frances Davis Weber,
Her maiden name being ‘Davis.’
Apparently, she had gotten pregnant before
She had ever met Les,
But my mother’s father fell in love with her
And took her in,
And they got married in front
Of the eyes of God,
Who blessed their spirits with all of their hearts.

My mum had many siblings,
One of them being James Weber, my uncle,
Whom everyone referred to as ‘Jimmy.’
He was a bright boy,
Hard-working and striving to
Do well in school.
He worked hard,
Had a very pretty girlfriend,
And was very kind to his sisters.
He was a great fellow.

My mum also had many sisters,
The first of which was Mary Jo Weber, my aunt,
Who had a great voice and
A very sweet disposition,
And very good-natured, as well.
Yet, she lacked common sense,
Had a relatively short temper,
And had a habit of letting things
Slip out of her mouth without a thought.
She spoke before she thought instead
Of ‘think before you act.’
She had a very good heart,
And meant very well,
But she could be bossy,
Which gave everyone a hard time.

The next sister was Gail Weber, my aunt,
A very pretty woman with long blond hair
And a very clever disposition.
She was very kind,
But very jocose and jocular,
Slightly rebellious,
And very independent.
She knew how to pull her mother’s strings,
And was rather manipulative in some ways.
She had a beautiful smile that
One men’s hearts,
But she knew how to use men
To get what she wanted.
She listened to her mother most of the time,
Did nice things for Mum,
But rebelled sometimes,
And got in lots of trouble for it.
She was slightly promiscuous,
Having protected sex,
And when Grandma caught her,
Boy, did she chew her out.

The next sister was Carole Weber, my aunt,
Who had a very kind heart.
She had a very good disposition,
Was very pretty,
Had a very pretty smile,
And was very lively.
People loved her,
And she had many boyfriends,
For men loved her,
And had a good heart.
She was clever,
And very jocose,
Had Grandpa’s sense of humour,
Which made her stand out from the crowd.

The next sister was Jean Weber, my aunt,
Who had a very kind disposition,
And was very friendly,
But was also very stubborn.
She talked back many times in her life,
Which could have been somewhat of a problem.
She had scoliosis,
So she wore a brace most of her life
Until her back got straightened out,
And she lived a relatively happy life,
For the most part.

Mum lived a happy life,
And during her life,
Gary Joseph Weber was born,
And he was a good kid, too,
And they had a good life.

Mum herself was a kind woman,
But she could be stubborn at times
Because she always stood for what was right,
For if she saw someone get persecuted,
Then she would stand up for that person,
For she was very kind.

She and her sisters had a normal life,
Doing crazy things together.
The sisters played with Barbie dolls
Many times out of the year,
Played outside and had lots of fun.
Mary Jo got lost at the mall,
And Frances had her neck for that one.
Gail played around,
And did lots of things,
And got in trouble, too.
Mum tried a cigarette,
And realised it did not taste very well.
They had their happy times and their sad times,
But eventually everything changed when
Jimbo died around 1970.

Jimmy was around 18 years of age,
And he was on the draft,
About to be drawn to Vietnam.
Les saw Mary then,
Whom he believed told him
He was going to die,
But Mary corrected him,
Telling him that his son would die,
And he—my Grandpa—was
Going to lose his health.
Jimmy went swimming one day,
Out on Hutchins’ Lake,
And he eventually had something
Happen to him,
Where he drowned right in.
The whole family knew that Jimbo went missing,
So they tried to find him,
Yet they couldn’t find him,
Until his corpse washed up on the shore.

The whole family wept,
And they held a funeral for him,
And they prayed for him,
The poor boy,
So that he would be safe in heaven with God Almighty.
And they all mourned for his death.

Shortly after, in 1976,
Frances Weber died of a heart attack,
A result of pneumonia,
And the whole family fell apart.
They all went to live in different areas,
And they split up to live on their own.

Mum lived with my great aunt
And uncle Louis and Art Davis,
Whom both acted as her legal guardians,
And she lived with them in Fennville for a time,
And she learned many things.
She made many new friends,
And had a great life,
For she still remembers the times when she
Watched Star Trek in her room,
When Aunt Louise acted like a mother to her.
She also remembers the many good times
They had together,
Even though she had to recover from her mother’s death,
And the loss of her friends back home.

My mother then moved to live with Aunt Carole,
And she met Patrick Kelley,
Who became her high school sweetheart,
And she had a great time with him,
Going to prom and whatnot,
Until they finally broke up at graduation.

My mum went to college at University of Michigan,
And she had a great time there,
For she earned her Bachelor’s Degree,
And doing everything she could.
She met Tom Ahn,
A Korean man,
Whom she fell in love with in college,
But the relationship did not last long,
Only to end too soon.

My father, Patrick Thomas Reamer,
Then found her after months of stalking
Her at U-M,
And he told her how he remembered her being
‘A very nice girl from high school, ’
And they got together.
They had a good relationship,
And they finally fell in love,
And married one day.

Mary Jo met Michael Damveld
In high school
And married him eventually
After their courtship took place
For a couple of years.
Upon their marriage,
Mary took Uncle Mike’s last name,
And Aunt Mary had a few children afterward:
Mark Damveld,
John Paul Damveld,
Stephen Damveld,
James Damveld,
And Sarah Damveld.
They all lived good lives.

Aunt Mary grew up,
Had her children,
And worked as a nurse practitioner
Until recently,
Where she retired
And decided to stop working.
She is a grandmother now,
And she is proud.

Mark Damveld met Ellen,
His lovely wife,
In his college years,
And he courted her for a while,
And then they decided to marry.
He had pursued his girlfriend at Western Michigan,
But had been dumped by her,
So he then met Ellen and married her.
They had two children together,
And they had Katelyn and Adam.
They live as one happy family,
And work things out if problems arise.

Uncle Mike grew old,
And he owned a gas station all of his life.
Recently, he had kidney problems,
And some sort of shingles.
His son, Mark,
Being an avid runner,
Helped him recover by giving him his kidney,
Which helped a bit until he had problems again,
But God blessed him,
And Uncle Mike recovered,
Getting better in time.

John Paul Damveld lived a relatively good life
Until he met Kelly in high school.
He got her pregnant,
And had the first child of the next generation,
His daughter Hannah.
He married Kelly,
And I still remember their wedding,
And it was beautiful.
John Paul and Kelly then had Leia,
And they were together for a while
Until they divorced,
For there had been fighting between them,
And Hannah and Leia struggled within.
John Paul then met Stacy,
And married her,
And has a great family with her unto now.

Stephen Damveld had a good life
Until high school,
When his lovely, beautiful girlfriend Natalie,
Who looks kind of like my friend Sarah Carmody
From college,
Who looks very beautiful, also,
Dumped him.
He worked in Best Buy for some time
But never got married or met anyone
Because he was angry at the world
And at what happened to him.
He lives a solitary life,
And no one ever sees him.

James joined the Marines to get away from
His mother’s tyrannical behaviour;
Apparently they did not get along very well.
He served for eight years,
And then he met his beautiful girlfriend whom
He still loves today.

Sarah lived an ordinary life.
She went to college,
And got a degree,
But never had a boyfriend
Except for once.
She lives a good life,
And she is single,
But one day,
She will find her match.

Aunt Gail met Paul Green,
Married him and became Wesleyan.
She had Chris Green and Michelle Green with him,
But they divorced later,
And then Gail met Rick VanAuken,
Whom she married and had Benjamin and Laurel.
They all lived in harmony until
Aunt Gail died in a firetruck accident
When she was a volunteer fire-fighter in 2000.

Chris Green grew to be somewhat crazy,
Going to parties and whatnot.
He had two kids out of wedlock
And so much more,
But he had a good life.

Everyone else had good lives,
But we can skip the family history,
For my mother is the one we focus on,
Right now,
For she is the one we listen to.

My mother met my father,
And she married him.
She had Elyse on 3 April 1990,
And they were happy.

She had me on 2 October 1993,
Sean on 11 September 1996,
And Stef on 24 September 1999.
She was happy to have all of us as children,
And she was grateful.

Then my father became an abusive man,
And he did many bad things,
For I will not go into detail,
But my mum suffered so much
That she decided to end it once and for all.

My mum and dad got divorced,
And my mum, suffering,
Managed to make it through it all,
And she did well
To survive,
And I am proud of her for that.
She is strong,
And this I know,
For she did a lot of work,
In order to help us be where we are today.