TW: Addiction, body shaming and mentions of ED (this will only be a topic in the first 3, maybe 4 chapters)
Camp Toccoa, Georgia
September 1942
"Dad, we're not children anymore!" James complained, not happy with still being called a child at the - according to him - ripe age of twenty four.
"You are though! I'm not a boy! I'm a man!" Jo mocked her brother, trying to imitate his voice.
"I am a man! I'm twenty four! I'm older than you Jo!' The older brother defended himself, adding a 'And I don't sound like that!" before crossing his arms, only proving Jo's words to be more true than even she thought they were.
"Okay, then explain why your voice hasn't changed since you were thirteen?" The younger woman teased again, getting fun out of riling up her older brother.
Before James could could even think of talking back, their dad spoke up again, already knowing their bickering wouldn't stop for a good while otherwise.
"James, Joanne, you can continue this at a later time. Right now we have other things to discuss, don't we?" The Colonel said with a pointed look directed towards both his son and daughter.
Shit, for a second they both forgot about why they were at their fathers office or at Toccoa in general to begin with. Jo looked at her older brother, then her father, then at the other two men in the room, then to her brother again.
The colonel and the lieutenants were confused as to why she was looking around so much, but James understood, she tried to say "now? with everyone here?" to him without words. James understood, he just nodded.
Before she could start her sentence, the oldest Sink caught onto his daughters unsaid words, and sent the lieutenants away. "Dick, Lewis, please go wait outside my office"
Dick? Didn't he say his name was Richard? Jo was confused, and her face must have shown it, because Lewis answered "His birth name is Richard but everyone calls him Dick, he sometimes introduces himself as Dick but i guess he wasn't taking any chances today" The older, black haired man laughed slightly at his own words.
That made sense to Joanne, he just wants to be polite, right? Make a good impression on the colonel's kids. Jo mentally scolded herself for thinking about how Richard, or Dick introduced himself.
While Jo was deep in thought about Dick's introduction, the two lieutenants left the office to wait outside by the door, leaving the three Sinks alone.
The father, after some silence, said "So, why are you two here? I'm not complaining... but it's been a good while since i've seen you both and all of a sudden i get a telegram that you're on your way to Georgia"
His words were true to their core, he missed Joanne and James so much, but he couldn't possibly find a positive reason for them to visit him, as they both had somewhat busy lives and Jo had lived overseas for the past five years. Not to mention James who had worked up the ladder in a car factory back home and had to travel quite a bit to keep up international relations, mainly in Britain since the German invasion.
Both sighed, looking at each other, trying to figure out who had to break the news to their father. Jo took the initiative, knowing her brother probably wouldn't. And he wasn't good with words so it would only be logical for Joanne to do it.
"Oma is dead. I found her in her bed, it was a natural death, old age they said" She confessed while looking anywhere except her fathers face, not knowing if he would react well. Oma was their mothers mother, but she was also of some importance to Robert Sink as she helped raising his daughter.
He didn't say or do anything but looking down at the papers on his desk as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. The Sink siblings didn't know if they liked the expression on their father's face, he didn't look happy but they couldn't quite figure out what his expression exactly was, but it was prominent that he partly didn't quite know how to feel.
"Dad, say something please" The only female in the room asked her father with a quivering bottom lip, if it was hard for anyone, it was for her.
Oma Julia Gerritsen was a short, skinny and grey-haired Jewish Dutch woman who married Russian Alexei Vasilyev when they were both young, they met in Paris where they were both visiting at the same time. They exchanged letters for some years and after a while, they saw each other again. It was decided them and there, they were going to get married.
After the wedding, Alexei packed his bags and went to live with his newly beloved wife in the Netherlands, they were happy, and their happiness was only to become bigger when they found out they were having a baby, a healthy daughter called Hannah Vasilyev.
As expected, a Russian immigrant wasn't very welcomed by the Dutch, which had caused some difficulties in the marriage at some point, but as time passed and Alexei learned Dutch, he was slowly accepted into the community of sorts. Either that or no one dared to say otherwise, as the Gerritsen name was well-respected in Den Haag (The Hague)
Hannah had a comfortable life, but she always wanted more adventure, so when she was old enough to leave home, she grabbed the first chance she got and went to America. There, she met Robert Sink, they married soon after, moved into a beautiful house in New Summerfield in Texas where they welcomed James on July 29th 1918 and Joanne on October 30th 1921.
Both children were the lights of their parents lives and the Sink children were adored all their childhood. Their life was basically picture perfect, a role model to the American society. A healthy and handsome boy and a gorgeous little girl, it was perfect, until it wasn't.
Hannah had troubles, troubles the started to drown with Morphine and other medicine. After a while it got so bad she became a hazard to not only her children, who were now in their teens, but to her husband as well. Robert was heartbroken by the sight of the shell of a woman that was once his wife and the mother of his children, it wasn't easy, but the decision had to be made; she was to be sent away.
Joanne didn't know the exact word for it, but it was a rehabilitation center of sorts. Her mother had been in there for almost seven years, it sounded extreme but Hannah was so far gone she was still just a shell of who she was, but she made lots of progress and was doing good, and that's all that mattered to Jo.
When Hannah was institutionalized in '36, Robert went away to the military, as James was eighteen at the time, he could do what he pleased. Joanne couldn't say the same and so she was sent to Oma Julia in the Netherlands.
It was nice, she missed her family dearly and went to visit them after around a year in the Netherlands in '37. It was nice but expensive, and even though the family was quite rich, it couldn't be repeated, so she stayed put in the Netherlands at her oma and opa's house.
Opa Alexei died in March '39, it was a beautiful funeral and many people showed up to it, as he was a man loved by many and talked to everyone he came across, familiar or not, opposed to his wife who was more closed off due to recent harassments she had gotten for being Jewish.
Julia did not handle her husband's death well and became bitter, taking her anger out on the only other person around; Joanne.
Joanne was at first thriving in the Netherlands, she learned both Dutch and Russian, one language taught by each grandparent and made some friends her age she hung around quite often. She didn't go to school there at first as her grandparents wanted her to learn the language before going in public much. After three months she finally got to go to school and was at last surrounded by people her age and made quick friends with some girls who kindly welcomed her into their group.
When Alexei died, Julia became strict with Joanne, it didn't matter what aspect, she had to have some sort of control over it. Joanne was no longer allowed to take morning runs with Anna and Sanne, she couldn't have breakfast either because both made her look "te veel op een verdomde man" ("too much like a damn man")
Julia was old, but she still had her wits with her, so when Germany invaded Poland in September of '39, she knew it wasn't just gonna be Poland that would fall into the hands of the Nazi's. So, she made sure her and her granddaughter would have an escape to England if necessary.
Julia was right, the Germans invaded the Netherlands on the 10th of May 1940. But due to not living close to the German border in the slightest, they had time to run, they got on a dingy boat with both only one suitcase with their belongings and went to England, outrunning the Germans.
In England, the old woman was even more closed off, as she barely knew any English due to only leaving the Netherlands a handful of times. Joanne knew English, obviously, so she helped her grandmother around the best she could, but no matter what she did, Julia never eased up on her granddaughter and continued to break her confidence down bit by bit.
After living in England for just a little over a year, they finally got an opportunity to leave for America. The trip wasn't horrible, the beds were doable and the food wasn't terrible either; it was the waves, and Joanne had terrible seasickness on board. The older woman did nothing but say that the seasickness was doing her good, making her look thinner.
Safe to say Joanne was happy to be back in her old house in New Summerfield after being away for so long. It was exactly as she remembered, just as warm and welcoming. It was neat, save for the occasional book or paper here and there and there was not much dust in sight, thanks to James who lived in the house alone when he was in the states all those years.
Shortly after arriving, James and Joanne's grandmother started declining slowly but surely. At first she walked around the house normally, mumbling some nonsense to Joanne about stupid stuff every now and again. It was only after a while she became bed-bound, during that time, she never really spoke anymore. Jo felt absolutely horrible for it as she still loved her grandmother dearly, but she sometimes loved the silence, she loved not having to hear her oma's bullshit.
Jo went out again, made jokes with James and took morning runs through the fields around their house, it was nice but she couldn't help but wonder how her friends in the Netherlands were doing and if they were okay or even alive.
On the 11th of September 1942, Julia Vasilyev néé Gerritsen died in her sleep in the guest bedroom of the Sink family residence.
James was sad, but it didn't bother him that much, he hadn't seen his grandmother in many many years so he didn't cherish much love for her if he had to be completely honest. Joanne was devastated, no matter how bad her oma treated her, Jo never stopped loving her grandmother, nothing could change that. A small part of her hated herself for still loving her grandmother even after how she treated her.
They didn't invite their father to the funeral for multiple reasons. One being that they both didn't want to reunite with their father that way. Another being that he, just like his son, didn't cherish much love for the old bitter woman, and it just wasn't possible to invite anyone on such short notice. There was an obvious rift between the two of them that was not only caused by the language barrier, but also the way they led their lives, oma Julia didn't agree with the way the Sink family lived, and Robert also had strong opinions about his mother-in-law at times.
Nevertheless, he had respect for her, as she took his daughter in willingly and raised her for the past few years while he and his wife were not able to.
After a long minute of silence, the oldest Sink spoke again. "Does your ma know?" Even though Hannah left her home in the Netherlands early, she still loved her parents dearly. Jo knew that, James knew that and Robert knew it, too.
"No, we didn't. And we're not planning on telling her any time soon. She's been doing so incredibly well and this would destroy her completely, all her progress from the last years would be gone in a second" James answered, he could tell Jo was having trouble keeping her tears in, so he took the liberty to explain their reasons.
The father nodded his head in understanding, of course he didn't fully agree, his wife deserved to know, but he had to agree with his children that it would be best for Hannah.
"Very well, how long will you two be staying? I assume you'll be wanting to go back home soon" Robert finally said, wanting to know how much time he had with his son and daughter before they had to leave, again.
The siblings looked at each other once again, they didn't quite plan this trip thoroughly, being too focused on having to organise their grandmother's funeral and getting a train to Toccoa.
"We didn't know how long you wanted us to stay, the decision is yours dad"
.・。.・゜✭・.
Authors note:
I'm sorry that this chapter took so long to be uploaded, this is mainly a rundown of hoe they got at Toccoa and why and family history bla bla bla.
This took SO LONG to write bcs i absolutely hate it but it'll explain alot as to why Jo is the way she is.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter nonetheless!!
xxxx