Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Storycorps: Christopher and Victoria Fraser

CF: What was your initial reaction to see a ten year old kid, um, sitting in your kitchen with not so much as a phone call prior to that?

VF: It was a surprise. I came in the door and grandpa was there. He told me that the police had called, and that they had taken you away from your dad, and that they had brought you here, um, because your dad was arrested. You were very sad, you missed your dad just terribly fiercely. Um, I remember you going out and sitting in the pine grove outside the door and weeping and weeping. And, I mean it was really, your grief was really really big.

CF: Yeah.

VF: You were quite amazing. In the first month, the things that you would say to us. Not nasty things. But, like, do you remember when you came in and you said, um, 'I really don't think that I should be living with you.' You came and told me that a couple of times.

CF: Oh yeah, yeah.

VF: And then you also came and talked to us about how we were castle people and you were a street person. Do you remember that?

CF: Yeah, I remember that.

VF: Because you had been homeless with your dad. Which we also didn't really know about.

CF: Yeah. and you had a great vocabulary, and I talked like Rocky. And...

VF: Yeah.

CF: Yeah.

VF: We never, like, said, 'Oh yeah, he can live here for ten years.' We said, 'Yeah, we'll do this one day at a time.' And, uh, because you have been as great as you've been, it hasn't been all that hard.

CF: Yeah. There's one thing I feel sad about. It's that I haven't ever, you know, really taken the time to give you direct praise. I can say it to anybody else. But I sometimes find it hard to say it directly to you. One thing that I just, um, I've always admired is, uh, I guess with all your grace, you managed to actually fill gaps. So, you fill the mother role, more than I could ever ask, and definitely more than I've ever known. But even the parts that I'm missing with the male figure, it's different, but you managed to make the pain a lot less. Um, so your biography, if one should ever decide to write one, that'd have to be a, like a big point. This is Victoria Fraser, she has the capacity to carry the world on her shoulders and run at the same time. I don't now too many people that can do that.

VF: Well, thank you.

CF: Yup.

VF: That's very kind of you to say that.