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It was several years ago when I
ran into her at a local Albertsons. I had just gotten finished
spinning some yarn to my then elementary aged daughter, about a
woman who used to look after me, and my mother to a certain extent.
There is a certain karma that happens when you are thinking about a
person, and then lo and behold, that person suddenly appears. That
was Virgie.
I must have been about 4 or nearly 5 when she came into our lives.
My mother had been through a couple of housekeeper/babysitters
before Virgie came along. I distinctly remember this one woman who
was pretty ancient at the time but she seemed nice enough or so I
thought. It wasn't like my mother worked full-time or anything (my
dad never let her because she had a job, which was me) but she did
bowl twice a week and had errands to run and beauty shop
appointments to keep. However, she needed some relief, as most
mothers do, so she hired this "retched crone" to keep an eye on me
for a few hours a week. I say this because my mom came home one day
to find "Miss. S." sound asleep and during her nap, I had decided to
take a stroll down Sherwood Forest Boulevard, alone. Luckily mom
found me a few blocks down the road unscathed.
Did I mentioned that she somehow managed to make out with half of my
wardrobe on the way out? Needless to say, that was the end of Miss
S's employ.
Then, there was Marie, who was a Nazi with an apron. She did not
last too long either, one or two days I believe. Then came Virgie.
We had a good feeling about her. She just smelled nice. She was the
kind of woman that you wanted to be next to….to sit in her lap….to
watch television with…to share a coke and a bag of chips with. And
we did. As the years rolled by, she remained with us through good
times and bad. She was a vault of information and came to be one of
my mom's best friends. I think she may have spent more time watching
the soaps and cleaning out our fridge (which was what most people
did when they came into our house), and that was okay.
I recall a time when I was fifteen and I had just gotten my driver's
license (things were different back then) and got my first ticket
only 2 weeks after that for speeding in a school zone
(radar never lies). I thought I was going to be able to keep that
secret for awhile but I was wrong. When I came home from school that
afternoon, my mom asked if anything new happened today and I said
"no". I should have known that my mom was always one step ahead of
me. Virgie had passed me on the boulevard whilst I was getting the
ticket and she ratted me out.
I think I was pretty angry with Virgie at the time, but she really
did do the right thing. My punishment was having John E. Law take my
driver's license for 30 days, which was way worse than anything my
mother could have done. That hurt.
When my mother breathed her last breath on this earth, I sat in the
kitchen staring blankly at the phone wondering who to call. I called
Virgie. She came right over. She closed mom's eyes then I sat in her
lap and wept like a baby at the age of 25.
Just the other day Virgie called me and told me that she reads my
"How Do You Deal" article every month, but that she especially liked
my article for June, which had a picture of me and my mother. She
knew us back then. I am so thankful that she is still gracing us
with her presence on this earth, because there were times that I did
not know where to find her. We lost touch some time ago and I was
worried that she, like my mother, grandmother and so many others
close to me have left this earth. But she is like the Eveready
bunny. We plan to get together soon and talk about old times. Maybe
we'll watch something mindless on the telly together and raid the
fridge.
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