CHAPTER 18
A few weeks into Mary’s newest responsibility, she was forced to consider options. One Monday evening after cooking dinner and cleaning the house, she gathered her belongs and sat watching the children finish their homework in the living room. It was no surprise that she did not leave the Leigh’ household until Fred arrived. And for five or ten minutes after his arrival, the two would trade small talk while she prepared plates for the younger children and placed them on the table. Junior and Fred prepared their own plates but no one ate until the whole family was gathered at the table. By that time Mary would be on her way home.
“Yall child’n don’t worry yo daddy. He tired,” she always said. “Eat all yo dinner and go to bed so you can git up in the mornin’,” she would tell them as she walked through the living room and out the front door. “I’ll see yall in the mornin.’ “ And with that she would walk into the setting sun and down the dusty road home.
That evening when Fred arrived, he stuck his head into the living room just as he'd always done. He never stepped inside the room until he removed his dirty work shoes. “How yall doin', Miz Mayree? Everythang ok?” he asked in his usual booming voice.
“Everythang fine, Fred,” Mary responded as she rose from the rocking chair, smoothing her handmade dress as she went. “Dinner ready for yall,” she continued as she walked toward Fred and the kitchen.
“The child'n give ya any trouble t'day?” He asked her while still leaning into the room.
The children had put away their schoolbooks and were sitting on the floor with a puzzle. Derek was sitting between Junior’s legs picking at his own shoestring.
“These child’n don’ gimme no trouble, Fred. They good child’n,” Mary said as she entered the kitchen.
Back in the kitchen, Fred faced Mary with a look of concern and anxiety. As Mary stood over the stove, Fred walked toward her and began to talk in a somewhat lower tone than Mary was used to. “Miz Mayree, I been thankin,” he started. “How you feel 'bout movin’ in here wit’ me an’ my child’n an’ livin’ here every day?”
Mary whirled around from the stove and stared at Fred head on. “I know ya ain’t got no husband an’ no li’l child’n to raise so I thought maybe ya can take care of my house like it’s yo house, Miz Mayree, ‘cause I trust ya wit’ my child’n,” he continued as he stood in the middle of the kitchen floor. “An’ my child’n like ya so much,” he rambled on. “An’ they need a mother, ‘specially my li’l girls ‘cause I don’t know how to raise no girls. Folks tell me it goin’ be hard to raise my girls without a mother.” Fred was talking nonstop and Mary stood with her mouth open, unsure of what to say or what she was hearing. In essence, Fred was asking her to give up everything she knew and loved to start a new life.
After Mary listened to Fred’s plea, she told him she would give it serious thought. “I’ll let ya know in a few days, Fred. Ya gotta gimme a few days to thank about it.” And as she left the Leigh home that evening, she knew she had some serious praying to do.
Undoubtedly, Mary had enjoyed being with and caring for the Leigh family. She had also enjoyed the flexibility of being able to share her time between two homes. Now she was faced with a dilemma that she wasn’t prepared to explore.
After all, Mary had a home of her own and she was pleased with it. She was just as pleased with her sewing job, even though she had not sewn very much lately. She had several people waiting for her to finish their sewing requests and she kept telling them that she was working on it or running a little behind schedule. They knew she was in demand and word had gotten around that she was helping out at the Leigh’ house; still, her customers were willing to wait because the end result was guaranteed to be to their liking.
However, Mary knew she could not continue to walk up and down that dirt road every day.
The walking was beginning to wear on her legs and feet. In fact, due to her lack of exercise, as well as many years of preparing and eating fine southern suppers, she noticed that her body had begun to resist some of the extra work that she was putting on it. She wondered if she should even consider the full-time responsibility that had been offered her. It would take so much of her time and energy to care for the Leigh' family the way they needed to be cared for. And being fifty-something years old, Mary felt she should be a grandmother, not the mother of such young children. Still, she realized they needed and deserved so much love and care; they had suffered enough with the loss of their mother.