Wednesday's Child

As Miriam Martin stood at her father's graveside, she recalled the complex story of her parents' marriage. Her mother's family migrated from the Mid-West in 1887 on the expanded line of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad from Kansas City to San Diego. Miriam's grandfather was looking to find the "golden fruits, the gardens of this sunset land." It was there in San Diego County, on a windy summer day on the beach, that her mother, Suzanna, met her father, Victor. She was 13. He was 20. By the time Suzanna was 14, they had been secretly married. Suzanna still lived at home, meeting Victor on weekends. Miriam couldn't help but smile as she recalled the story she had been told about how the secret was revealed. But she also knew that the happiness her parents had at the beginning was short-lived. Victor, a pharmacist, and his family had the only pharmacy in San Diego, and he was a prominent citizen of the city. Yet all his education and charm could not overcome his alcoholism, and Miriam (called Merry by her beloved father) was caught in the middle of her parents' stormy relationship. Miriam's story unfolds against the backdrop of California's earliest days, when most residents lived a rural life. And when "the town of San Diego reeked of newness, with its crude dirt streets and sparsely placed wooden buildings. Strange trees called palms flanked the roadway." Yet it was growing day by day as Easterners and Mid-Westerners made their way to Southern California's sunny shores.