Lew Ayres/My Dad (IF You Know? Book Excerpt) Nov 25 Written By Sheryle Cruse Talk about a doppelgänger. Lew Ayres. An actor, best known as Dr. Kildare in nine films.The spitting image of my dad.I was NOT the doppelgänger of my dad. Yet, I discovered, later in my life, there was more to the story than I had believed. More mystery.Yes, my dad looked like Lew Ayres.But what ELSE?(IF You Know? Book Excerpt)…Resemblance?One last thing about “appearances:” my dad’s physical characteristics. Again, my small rural hometown was bursting with fair-complected people. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. If anything were undeniably true about my dad’s Ashkenazi roots, his physicality would serve as excellent camouflage. He had pale white skin, blue eyes, and strawberry blonde, wavy hair.At first glance, I did not “take after him.”I had darker features. Perhaps, my skin color was lighter than my mother’s darker skin tone. How much was I blanched out, being the genetic result of these two people?How much was my cancer diagnosis attributed to his DNA?I don’t look like him. But I see him. I see something more, something else, going on.Assimilating. Hiding. Being ashamed. Secrecy. Were these the features of my male parent? Did he camp in that belief system, terrified, yet believing, the entire time, that he needed to deny who he was?Did he know who he was?Or did the shame just imprison him?An easy to see, white (Lutheran) man, living on the farm?“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”Luke 12:2If You Know?: Cruse, Sheryle: 9798272042019: Amazon.com: Books Copyright © 2025 by Sheryle Cruse Sheryle Cruse
Lew Ayres/My Dad (IF You Know? Book Excerpt) Nov 25 Written By Sheryle Cruse Talk about a doppelgänger. Lew Ayres. An actor, best known as Dr. Kildare in nine films.The spitting image of my dad.I was NOT the doppelgänger of my dad. Yet, I discovered, later in my life, there was more to the story than I had believed. More mystery.Yes, my dad looked like Lew Ayres.But what ELSE?(IF You Know? Book Excerpt)…Resemblance?One last thing about “appearances:” my dad’s physical characteristics. Again, my small rural hometown was bursting with fair-complected people. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. If anything were undeniably true about my dad’s Ashkenazi roots, his physicality would serve as excellent camouflage. He had pale white skin, blue eyes, and strawberry blonde, wavy hair.At first glance, I did not “take after him.”I had darker features. Perhaps, my skin color was lighter than my mother’s darker skin tone. How much was I blanched out, being the genetic result of these two people?How much was my cancer diagnosis attributed to his DNA?I don’t look like him. But I see him. I see something more, something else, going on.Assimilating. Hiding. Being ashamed. Secrecy. Were these the features of my male parent? Did he camp in that belief system, terrified, yet believing, the entire time, that he needed to deny who he was?Did he know who he was?Or did the shame just imprison him?An easy to see, white (Lutheran) man, living on the farm?“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”Luke 12:2If You Know?: Cruse, Sheryle: 9798272042019: Amazon.com: Books Copyright © 2025 by Sheryle Cruse Sheryle Cruse
