Mrs. Marshall
My mother beganworking for a wealthy DC family several years ago, they wouldcome to Delaware to their beach house each summer and severaltimes during the "off season." A year into her servicewith them, the lady developed liver cancer which quickly spread.She stayed at the Delaware house and requested that my mother bethe one to take care of her through her last days. She was asweet lady and Mom agreed although it broke her heart. Since Iwas still only 16 she couldn't be there 24 hours a day so sheasked one of her sisters to come and help out. The family didn'treally care for Virginia at all but tolerated her because oftheir love for my mother. The illness didn't take long to takethe lady's life, she died in October, just a few months afterlearning the cancer had spread. I called Mom when I got home fromschool that day, as I did every day to let ehr know that yes Iwas ok. She told me the Mrs. had passed away in the middle of thenight, she was gone by the time Mom got there that morning andshe asked if I would please come down and help her clean up alittle because the family was already on their way back to DC andshe just didn't feel comfortable being there with just her sister.She said there had been tension between the family and Virginiabefore they left but no one had mentioned why. I had a frienddrive me down and helped Mom do the "end of season"cleaning because the family would not be returning until thespring. As we were leaving, Mom said she wanted to make sure allthe doors were locked so she was going to check the downstairsdoors at each end. I stood by the main entrance at the foot ofthe stairs (in the foyer) waiting. Virginia came down the stairsand placed some of her belongings on the table that sat there andthen she placed a mug there that I knew did not belong to her butshe intended to take it with her. I watched as the mug appearedto be picked up and thrown down to the floor. It was no wherenear the edge of the table and I wasn't close enough to the tableto have caused that to happen. In my heart I believe Mrs.Marshall was having her "final say" to Virginia,letting her know that she couldn't get away with taking anythingfrom the house. Mom came out to see what had happened and I toldher, she said that Virginia should never have tried to takeanything, no matter how small and she deserved it. I agree 100%yes these were weathly people whom you'd think to be snobs butthe truth is that they'd have given you the shirt off their backsif you'd asked them.
Mom continued to work for them for years after, caring for theman each time he came down and making sure things were in orderwhen his adult children came to visit. Each day she would say shefelt the Mrs. nearby and it made me a little uneasy going thereto help out on weekends that there would be a full house. I neverfelt her until the end of the summer when I was cleaning the poolfurniture for storage. I felt as though I were being watched andI looked all around and noticed her standing in the window of herdressing room, just as she had the first season we were there. (Afterthat first time she said it impressed her how much time I putinto making sure the pool furniture was perfectly white before Igot it ready for storage.) She was smiling when I saw her there,and she nodded to me, I smiled and waved to her thinking tomyself that if anyone looked and didn't see her there they'dsurely think I'd flipped waving at an empty window but I didn'treally care because I hadn't gotten the chance to say goodbye toMrs. Marshall and it was as if she knew that this would be mylast season there and she didn't want to miss her chance to saygoodbye to me. It was really neat.