CHAPTER IV: GETTING TO KNOW YOU - NAOMI

CHAPTER FOUR

GETTING TO KNOW YOU…NAOMI

NAOMI…

NAOMI TOMLINSON…

NAOMI DuFRESNE TOMLINSON

Petite in physical form, 

but a real spit-fire in personality.

I do believe she could be called…SPUNKY.

Hmmm. Now where have I heard that before.

HAHAHA.

A little history…

Naomi Colette DuFresne began her life in one of the most prestigious areas of New Orleans. Like Ofelia.

An area of big old ante-bellum homes surrounded by large expanses of finely-manicured grounds…with sweeping circle drives and servants, of course.

Like Ofelia.

Socially prominent mother and highly successful father. Like Ofelia.

Little Naomi Colette DuFresne never wanted for anything as a child. She had the best toys, went to the best schools, hobnobbed with only the kids who like her were raised in enormous affluence.

Like Ofelia.

Bright to the point of being almost scary. Again, like Ofelia.

Naomi and her younger brother were among the most popular kids in their neighborhood, in their school, in their parish. Like Ofelia.

Then Naomi graduated and set off to conquer the world, or so she had decided for herself.

Never one to minimize for herself her own ambitions, she arrived at the University of Mississippi…with the idea in mind of learning as much as she could as fast as she could (which she did), and then she was convinced that she would set out to take on the world.

Her mama had had her heart set on Naomi attending one of the bigger and more prestigious Universities UP NAWTH, but her daddy thought it might be better if their little 'spitfire' were a bit closer to home. 

Gee, I wonder why?

She studied Literature and European history. Again just as Ofelia had originally.

Life at Ole Miss was pretty much as one might expect. Classes, studying, and the usual lively social life.

Then, during Naomi’s  junior year, she met a dashing young man from Natchez, by the name of Peter Brantford Tomlinson. 

Naomi immediately chose Petey 

as his nickname and he immediately chose to indulge her.

The relationship grew throughout the rest of her junior and senior years, and nearing graduation Petey finally popped the question. Naomi didn’t hesitate for one second. She said yes, and they married that summer, in New Orleans.

Big society wedding which neither 

Naomi nor Petey had really wanted…

but the parents, ah well…

Almost immediately life settled in to a pleasant routine. Petey  had majored in business at Old Miss, and after graduation went to work in his fathers’ mercantile firm in Natchez.

The house was a joint wedding present from the Tomlinsons and the DuFresne’s.

Naomi took to married life, and 

although she never seemed able to get pregnant or carry to term, they both finally decided that that was that.

After one particularly difficult miscarriage, Petey bought Naomi a pair of standard Schnauzer pups who instantly became the center of their universe, and that is how Naomi and LiliBeth first met. But more on that later.

Incidentally, I kept referring to the similarities between Naomi and Ofelia for a reason. They had been raised in the same neighborhood in New Orleans…and although Naomi was considerably younger it would seem odd that they wouldn’t have known each other. The fact is, they did.

YEARS BEFORE.

Actually, Naomi’s father had worked for Ofelia’s father as a young man and the families had become rather close…and still were when Naomi was born. But,  for some reason that neither woman ever understood, there was a falling out and by the time Naomi was slightly more than a toddler, the families had grown apart. THAT is why now Naomi and Ofelia hadn’t recognized each other. They hadn’t seen each other for almost thirty years.

They would of course eventually connect the dots. But not yet.

Naomi’s heritage was from the Bourdeau region of southern France. Wine country. In fact, many of her cousins still live there and own many of the area’s (and the world’s) most prestigious and successful wineries.

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        CONTINUE TO  CHAPTER V