Character Coffee Chat with Helen Matthews

Readers immerse themselves in books they enjoy, especially when they can relate to the characters as if they are real people. Friends you can turn to, family you spend special moments with and even those characters you love to hate. Character Coffee Chats offer a little extra time with some of the characters readers have enjoyed meeting or getting to know in the Jorja Matthew mystery series. For those who haven’t yet read the series, be warned some coffee chats might offer spoilers.

For those who have kept up with the series since the beginning, here’s your chance to spend extra time with each character, gain insight about recent events in the novels and learn more details about their backstory.

Now it’s time to grab a cup of coffee and enjoy! Today’s coffee chat will be with Helen Matthews from the Jorja Matthews mystery series.

Let’s begin with Helen introducing herself and how she knows Jorja Matthews.

Hello, I’m Helen, I’m married to Rick Matthews and Jorja is our daughter. I used to be a bookkeeper so I help Jorja with the financial side of things at the bookstore. Rick and I are both retired, otherwise, and live in Edmonds, so we come down to visit when we can because Jorja isn’t always able to make the drive up to where we currently reside.

You used to live in Tenino, correct?

Yes, I did. I grew up in Tenino and went to school there until I left for college. I met and married Rick and we were living in Spokane and had been married for three years when…well, my parents contacted me, wanting my help with a situation involving my sister, Gloria.

Were you and your sister close?

I can’t honestly say we were close, really. My sister was six years younger than I was, so by the time I graduated high school, she was only twelve years old. I went to college, met Rick and we got married. I lived on the east side of the state and didn’t visit my parents that often, so I didn’t have a lot of contact with my sister when she entered her teen years and started high school. Rick and I were busy with work and we were also trying to get pregnant, but it just wasn’t meant to be. My sister ended up pregnant when she was only fifteen and while that wouldn’t be shocking to most people, it was a shock to my parents. It became a blessing for me when I became a mother in a way I hadn’t expected.

You weren’t able to have your own children, but you adopted Jorja, correct?

We did. Something happened when my sister had her babies—it turned out she was pregnant with twins. We were told one of the babies didn’t make it, but Jorja survived and needed to be cared for because my sister was committed after the babies were born. I’ll never understand what happened to my sister’s mental state when she had the babies, but it was trying time for my family, especially for my parents when they had to commit one child while asking the other to take on the sudden responsibility of a newborn. But I was ready. I’d wanted a child for so long, and Jorja was an answer to my prayers.

So you raised Jorja as your own? Did she ever know her biological mother?

We raised Jorja as our own, eventually moving into the family home in Tenino where I grew up with my parents and my sister. I never had the heart to tell Jorja the truth about her birth or that I wasn’t her birth mother. My sister was in a mental institution until Jorja was in her twenties, and I couldn’t bring myself to let Jorja become a part of that world when she was just a child.

Gloria did the unforgivable when Jorja and her brother were born, and I didn’t want to have to explain to Jorja why her mother reacted the way she did. I never understood it, and I worried about how Jorja would feel, as a child, if she knew what Gloria’s intention had been after she was born. It was bad enough we thought her brother died. We didn’t want to try to make sense of that while asking Jorja to get to know the mother who tried to kill her. Honestly, it took a long time for me to forgive my sister for what she did. Eventually, Jorja did learn to have a relationship with my sister, but as an aunt. While I was concerned, I tried to let them form at least that sort of relationship.

But then your sister died, correct, and things changed at that point?

That’s to put it mildly. When Gloria was released from the hospital, we moved out of the family home so that she could have a place to stay. Rick and I moved up north, and at this time Jorja was living down in Vancouver. Jorja inherited the home after Gloria passed away. I knew Jorja was going to inherit the home from my sister, and I was happy about that. What I wasn’t happy about was a little surprise Jorja found one day after she’d moved into the house. She soon learned the truth about Gloria, or some of it anyway, and I was left with telling her what I knew. But as it turned out, I didn’t know everything.

Can you share what details you had been unaware of?

Well, for starters, I didn’t know who Jorja’s father was. Gloria never admitted who got her pregnant. Not to me and certainly not to our parents. And I was also unaware of the truth about Jorja’s brother. Actually, no one knew the truth about him, other than the man who lied to all of us about it. I’ll never get over how a man my parents trusted more than anything could have hidden such a huge secret from them. I get it, in a way, only because of how much I wanted my own child, but still.

But when I discovered Jorja’s brother had actually survived? I was shocked and then I was just…so sad. I truly wish my sister had lived long enough to know she hadn’t actually caused the death of one of her children. Actually, if we’d known the truth from the beginning, maybe Gloria wouldn’t have had to be committed to a mental institution at all. Things might have turned out differently if our parents hadn’t believed the worst of my sister. That’s something I’ll always wonder. The only positive out of it all is that I was able to raise Jorja as my own.

What do you think about Jorja’s business and her work as a private investigator?

Of course, as a mother, I worry. I wish she’d just stick to running the bookstore. It’s safe. She probably isn’t truthful with me about her work, but what she has told me, or what I’ve learned from others, certainly gives me pause. I worry about her, but then I also raised her and I know she’s a strong, resilient and capable woman. At least, that’s what I tell myself when I worry about what she might be up to.

Was Jorja upset with you when she found out the truth about Gloria?

I’ll admit, she was upset she didn’t know the truth about her birth and that we had lied to her. And we did lie to her. Even Gloria was okay with letting Jorja grow up believing her mother was her aunt and vice versa. She knew she couldn’t properly take on the role as a mother to Jorja. And I did what I did out of love and out of the desire to keep Jorja from believing, as a child, that she wasn’t good enough.

If a child believes their own mother didn’t want them, imagine how they feel the rest of society might treat them? I wanted Jorja to grow up knowing she had loving parents, and yes, a loving aunt, and that she was capable of anything when she grew up. She might have been upset at first about being lied to, but thankfully, we have a strong enough relationship so that we were able to move past it.

Would you do anything different, knowing what you know now?

No, not a thing. I’d still rather be the bad guy now, rather than risk Jorja growing up as a child with the knowledge that her mother tried to kill her. If my sister had been able to live outside the hospital when Jorja was still young, things may have been different. If we’d known the truth about Jorja’s brother, things might have been different. But those things didn’t happen, so I wholeheartedly stand by my decision, as a mother, for what I did to protect the child I raised as my own.

I think, if I were to have a conversation with my sister today, she would completely agree. Even after Gloria’s release from the hospital when Jorja was an adult, she had no problem playing her part by letting Jorja continue to believe she was an aunt, rather than her mother. So, no, I would not change anything. I may not have given birth to Jorja, but she is my daughter in every other way and I will do anything to protect her. Family is very important to me and I won’t apologize for doing what I believe is best for my family.

A mother’s love is like nothing else. Given the circumstances surrounding her birth, I’m sure many will agree she was lucky to have you then and she’s lucky to have you now. There are more details about the history involving you, your sister and Jorja that would be interesting to discuss, but we’ve reached the allotted time so we’ll have to end our chat here. For any readers who do have additional questions specifically for Helen, please note it down in the comments and she’ll reply to best of her ability.

I hope you enjoyed this Character Coffee Chat and that you’ll check back next month for the next chat with another character from the Jorja Matthew mystery series!