Chapter 14 - Why I Stayed In The Museum Uniform
People assumed after everything came out that I would finally take a family title.
Vice chair.
Trustee.
Executive director.
Something that would prove Madeline wrong when she called me a servant.
I didn’t.
I kept my museum job.
I was promoted eventually, but through the same review process as everyone else, into director of collections and restoration programming.
I still worked events when necessary.
Still knew how to roll a service cart.
Still helped staff clean up after donors who thought money made gravity optional.
Madeline had used my uniform as evidence that I was beneath her.
Dad would have understood why I refused to be ashamed of it.
He loved airplanes because machines do not care who your grandfather is.
Either the structure works or it doesn’t.
Either the restoration is correct or it isn’t.
That kind of honesty suited me.
Grandpa once asked if I wanted a foundation board seat.
“Someday,” I said.
“When?”
“When I’ve earned a reason beyond my last name.”
He smiled.
“That sounds annoyingly like your father.”
May you like
It was the best compliment he could have given me.
---
