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She wasn’t an educated woman or to the world anything special. But at three years of age, she was my world for 9 hours a day. My mother would wake me up at 5am and bundle me up in my pj’s and drop me off at Mary’s house by 6am. I can remember being laid gently down on the bed and soft quilts being pulled up over me. I would wake up with the smell of warm bread coming out of the oven and I would shyly come into the kitchen and Mary would smile at me.
“Sit down honey and I’ll fix you an egg. You want store bread or home made bread with that?”
It didn’t really require an answer since I chose home made bread every time, but Mary always let me have the choice just the same. Her chickens had laid the eggs and she had one mean old rooster that I was deathly afraid of though Mary just told me if I stayed away from him, he’d stay away from me. I believed her as Mary had my total trust.
Mary stopped caring for me around the age of 5 as I was getting ready for school. But there was that loving bond between Mary and I that I never let go. I was 28 when I moved back to my home town and I had my own little girl. My mother told me one day that she had run into one of Mary’s kids and she knew where she was and would I like to go see her?
I remember feeling like that small child again and time wouldn’t go fast enough till I could see her. When I finally hugged her, we both had tears in our eyes. She was so amazed that I had such strong feelings and memories for her. I told her I was certain she wouldn’t remember me after all those years. We shared our memories and she gave my little girl that same choice when lunch was served, “you want store bread or home made bread?” I whispered to choose the home made bread!
Now I have come full circle because I am a professional nanny. I didn’t come to it till late in life and feel like all my experiences up to now was just prep work for this special career. Like Mary, I’m nothing really special on the outside to the world. But to a child I am often everything for 9 hours a day. I call upon every skill I have to make sure that my child is safe, loved and that I teach something to them each day. Even a baby learns something every day. You just have to close your eyes and listen with your heart.
People say the politically correct words that of course my job is one of the most important! Yet, in the professional world, my leadership abilities aren’t rate up with any CEO. That’s fine with me because I would have to grow up a little to obtain that kind of leadership skill. I prefer my world of make believe and treasure hunts with hugs and kisses thrown in each day.
I wasn’t sure what I could write about for this challenge. I hadn’t thought of Miss Mary for years and then suddenly, she came to my thoughts tonight and I realized that my subconscious pulled her up as I thought about leadership. She instilled in the shy child how to show love and gave me security on the days I had to let go of my mother.
I can only hope that I can reach up to her level of leadership. Until then I can only say, I still love you, Miss Mary….
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