by Rene Kelly

Created on: April 15, 2008

Cinderella A Step-Mother's Nightmare

An interview? You want to interview the woman who raised Cinderella? I'll tell you about it, but on the condition that you not tell where you got the story. She married into a very powerful family, you know. It could go very badly for me if they find out where you heard this. The princess that everyone thinks they know and love is very different from the "princess" that I live with for all those years.

I was a young widow with two very loving, kind daughters when I met her father. He was in our part of the country on an extended business trip. When we realized that we were in love and wanted to be together, we decided to marry in my home town. It wouldn't be seemly to travel together all the way to his home otherwise. We didn't want to make the lengthy trip separately, so we married before we left.

My nightmare began the moment that we arrived at our new home. Of course all the staff were lined up to greet us. And there was Cinderella waiting as well. She was beautiful! My own daughters are lovely, but even they paled in comparison to Cinderella. She was the most divine thing I had ever seen. According to her father, her beauty outside was matched by her beauty inside. Boy, did she have him snowed!

It began almost immediately. She was just darling to my face. She didn't think I saw, but I did. I saw out the corner of my eye that as soon as I turned to talk to the staff, she made a face at me. Then she started picking at her new sisters. They were just little things that would annoy. And she kept on until they reacted, as children do. Of course, she started crying and saying that my little angels were picking on her. This was the way that our new life would be.

We were together only a matter of weeks when her father passed away. Here I was a widow again. Only this time I had a step-daughter to raise in addition to my own two. Imagine what a shock it was when we found out that his wealth was based entirely on his family name. His business was in shambles and we had nothing but a place to live. Cinderella didn't take kindly to having to do without. Apparently she thought somehow that her father would still be alive if he hadn't married me, or at least that she would still have his wealth.

You've heard all the stories about how she had to wear rags and clean the hearth, of course. The truth is that she always claimed that job. She'd crawl around in the hearth until her clothes were filthy and torn. Then she'd make sure that everyone

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