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Note: EXCERPTS FROM FAMILY HISTORY BASED ON INTERVIEWS WITH MARIA VALLIERE, DELIENNE VALLIERE, LOUIS VALLIERE, JEAN VALLIERE & DORIS MARTEL -- BY WILLIAM MAHAN
Regina and Dosithe Meet (c. 1890 Berlin NH)
"...Dosithe had been widowed for over a year. Even Obeline had to agree it made sense that he should start looking for another life�s partner, and Regina was a nice girl. For Regina it was love at first sight. The uniform is what did it. It was bright red with brass buttons and epaulets. Golden piping scrolled its way from button to button on the breast of the jacket and a feathered plume rose up from the patent leather brim of his cap. He looked like a Prince who had stepped right out of a picture book, a far cry from the dusty sweat soaked farmers she had become used to..."
Regina's First Pregnancy (c.1893, Rumford, ME)
"...Regina was scared. She was sixteen years old, pregnant for the first time, and didn�t know it. Her mother had never spoken to her of such things and was too far away to do so now. Her constant nausea and backache had worried her for some time. Stranger still, �the curse� had stopped visiting her. When the swelling in her abdomen and breasts began she wondered if the "curse" was backing up inside her. She began to fear death by explosion. She was certain this was somehow connected with the way she and Dosithe had been pleasuring each other. On the night they consummated their marraige she thought she�d married a mad man. Minutes later she realized she was as depraved as he was. She knew back then it was too good to be true. It was the only thing she had ever done that was deserving of such heavenly retribution, and she despaired of ever being bold enough to confess such a thing to a priest Privately she prayed to the Virgin for forgiveness and swore an oath that she would never do such a thing again.
Dosithe�s spirits had been as high as hers were low. It made her angry that she was the only one being punished when it was he who had started the whole thing. Dosithe had no idea why he was suddenly getting the silent treatment. When he asked about it, she would talk only long enough to deny that she had stopped speaking to him. After each such pronouncement, his jaw would go slack and his head would droop forward as he waited intently for the follow-on explanation that never came. Whatever his transgression, it was plain that a pardon was a long way off. He brought her flowers from the hillside and bought her the finest confections from the sweet shop. When he dropped a crumb he picked it up immediately, and when he saw her drop one he cleaned that up too. Still, when they went to bed her back was towards him. She spoke not a word and moved not a muscle.
When he finally realized his patience would not be rewarded with answers, he thundered about the house and demanded to know what he had done to deserve being treated like the builder of Christ�s cross. With the defiance of one already hopelessly damned she spat back, �Where is your swelling? Why does God punish me and not you?�
No meaningful relationship between the sexes can exist without this tunnel of bewildering thought exchange. The subject of debate doesn�t matter. What matters is that, though neither party has a clue what the other is talking about, they persevere long enough to unravel the mystery.
Getting through such impasses takes much more than the patience to enlighten ones partner; it also requires the wisdom to be enlightened.
So it was that Regina learned from her husband, a bit after the fact, how babies are made. For his part, Dosithe learned he was about to become a father, which he did on August 25, 1893. It was a boy, and they named him Joseph Dosithe Valliere. Henceforth he would be called 'Doc'."
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