Mary Ann Madden

There are certain moments in your life when your mind seems to take a snapshot.  And that snap shot is as clear in your mind today, as it was when it was the moment it was taken, regardless of how many years have elapsed.  One such snapshot was clicked nearly fifty years ago.

     I was seven years old.  My parents, my brother and I had just moved into our new house, in a new neighborhood, on a quiet little cul-de-sac, named Cheyenne Court.  It was August.  And we had only been living in our new house perhaps a day or two.  I happened to be playing outside.

     It was then that I saw a simple sight, yet a sight that made a profound and a lasting impression on me.  I looked up and saw a woman walking on the sidewalk that curved slightly around the perimeter of our cul-de-sac.  She was walking towards our house.  Lapping at her heels was a cute, energetic, little boy with dark brown hair.  He was about two years old.  He was enthusiastically tagging along right behind his mother.  The woman was very, very pregnant.  Perhaps seven or eight months.  As she walked, she had her hands out in front of her pregnant tummy, and she was carrying a pie.  

     She got to our house, introduced herself, and presented my mother with a pie she had baked – from her family to ours.  “Why did she do that?” I whispered to my mom.  My mother explained to me that sometimes people do such nice things to welcome people to the neighborhood.  

     The neighbor lady introduced her little boy, Bobby.  She also said that she had six more children at home!  

     The woman was warm and friendly, and I took a liking to her the moment I met her.  But it was more than that.  Through my eyes, this woman represented the quintessential woman – for she was the quintessential mother.

     She was welcoming and gracious and sincere.  She was positive and capable and maternal.  She was so beautiful.  As a little girl of seven, I looked up to her, and placed her on my pedestal of role models.  She was the kind of woman I aspired to be someday when I grew up.  That moment will be forever in my mind, as it captured the picture, the essence, and the beauty of Marion Madden.  

        

In sympathy and with affection,

Barbara Miles        

P.S. Peter, I really think that I saw that rabbit (huddled in the corner of the neighbor's front porch) first!  However, I'm finally coming to grips with the possibility that perhaps you may have actually seen it first!  Another fond memory!