Recovered original email from Peter Zeimet. Body preserved verbatim.
Original subject: Well, yes there was more than the email she sent you.
From: <renobassoon@pyramid.net>
Date: April 11, 2007
She has been upset the last few weeks with a few comments your dad made about "country bumpkins" in South Dakota and the situation the ranch/family is and has been. Jo has taken it personally as an insult to our parents and other family and herself. Well, it was intended to be quite actually, but Jo is only seeing the one side of it. The lifestyle in South Dakota is not progressive but it is not to be laughed at, either. I can understand both sides. There is no need to make it worse, so I think it is best to just drop that whole side before a hurricane starts over it. I do think it would be wise if your dad refrained from further country bumpkin type comments, however. But it is probably wise to let that whole mess drop. Don't apologize or anything........just let it drop......please. Jo is pretty pissed right now so when you sent the data on Jim Solomon, she sort of popped her cork because WE BOTH KNOW that our father tried harder to make it good for her than he did for us and whether realizing it or not, it excluded our dad from the picture. I KNOW YOU DID NOT MEAN IT THAT WAY..........believe me, please. But it did not help matters. I would drop it rather than say oops or I did not mean it that way. She will just withdraw further.
Where Jo and I are concerned , I have NO CLUE as to what happened. It has ALWAYS been that way. It was that way when I was 4 years old and will continue forever.
I really do not know Jo. (seriously) With having been younger than both the siblings, I cannot imagine what I did wrong when I was in diapers to be such an outcast !!!!!!!!! There were such vast voids in the family that perhaps we were all just victims. Your grandmother was physically and sexually abused by Cyril Fuller. Her sister was sent away to stay with a minister in Iowa that was driving across the reservation. Grandma Marie Fuller gave her away to strangers to save her life. All mother could remember was seeing her drive away in a car and waving to her. He had totally destroyed the poor girl and then your grandmother was next on his list. She took a fence post out of the ground in the 8th grade and beat him with it when he was going to rape her again. She left and walked for several days to Winner and stayed with Dickie Nicholson until the relatives could come from Nebraska to pick her up. That has left her permanently scarred. All those problems kept manifesting themselves and I think her life just got worse and worse. The marriage to Jim Solomon certainly had all that baggage enter into it. If he was a problem in his own right, then you can visualize why the total CUT was done after the divorce. I know that he kidnapped your mother and one of the other children and ran away with them. Your mom told me she remembers crawling out a window and being shoved into a car. Well, your grandmother got them back. I do not know when one or both the others died, but your mom ended up with grandpa Fuller and AraBelle was panicked tht he would begin molesting her. That is how she ended up back in South Dakota when she met Peter W. Zeimet. She married him, alright but I think it was out of hysteria over EVERYTHING that made up her life. That same baggage was always there when we grew up and then the distance between us and the Zeimet family isolated your grandmother more. She was terribly sad her entire life. I think the happiest years were her final ones. She FINALLY HAD HER HOUSE AND other things (including the ranch without a Zeimet name on the title) and all the BAD people were gone. Can you see now why she was so hell bent to stay in HER OWN HOUSE UNTIL SHE DIED? My dad was not a bad man, but her life for so long had been one of discontent and frightful memories, fighting with the Zeimets, etc.etc. etc. that I am glad she had those last few years.
What does and always will puzzle me is your grandmother always said she NEVER saw her again. When I was in Utah a few years ago to visit everyone, your mom showed me a photo taken in Custer and Elaine was in it. My mother was there, too. So, she DID see her. I do not understand. Why did they not talk forever? What could have happened? Elaine had several children and the relatives sent photos to your grandmother after they had passed away. One was named June after Ara Belle's middle name. If she had seen her in the 50's, how bad was everything for her to not even know Elaine had children? I double asked your mother if she was sure it was Elaine and not just a female unknown body in the photo. She confirmed it was Elaine and she remembered being introduced. Cherl remembers that, too. I asked her just in case I did not understand. She was positive that is what your mom said.
So, the DIVISIONS have been going on for a long time. We all just were born into this big mess and raised in the middle of a big mess. The Zeimets were clannish and there was NO changing that. They were good and honest people..............just not very welcoming. They learned to be better about it over the years, but still it existed. Jo still is overly protective of them. I am NOT discussing it with her. I can understand her emotions and respect them. I just to not respond to any of it. My dad tried very hard to be a good father to Lani. I think he succeeded admirably. I REALLY DO. But, just like Jo and I; Lani was raised in an abnormal situation created long before we were born and perpetuated until the present. It is a tragedy that frankly cannot be repaired. I am not sure it should be. I just am glad it is ending and hopefully did not get passed on into your and Mindy's family. I hope every effort can be made to stop the secrets and hatreds. There is no reason for more lives to be damaged. I hope this has helped some. I have not meant it to be a bomb. It is just the scenario that I have experienced and my opinions as to what happened. - Pete Zeimet
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