While Her World Was Falling Apart

The air didn't move. It was too wet to stir. The heat never let up. There was scarcely a dab of shade to be found. Maud finally shut the house, loaded the kids into the car, and set off for town. It could only be Missouri during the Dog Days.

The Everly Brothers played on the radio. With the car windows down at least there was the pseudo breeze to relieve them.

Then up one hill and down the other through that strong farm country they saw field after field of corn all the way to town.

Corn loves this kind of weather. People kind of melt in it. But Maud was taking them for an ice cream in spite of everything.

Then on the south side of the square in town, they walked into the ice cream parlor. A long skinny kind of room it was. It was positioned so that the sun never entered there. Big overhead fans stirred the inside air. In that dim place they walked to the counter and sat on stools that swirled on full circles. Just like the ones at the drug store lunch counter.

The ice cream lady watched them get settled. She thought how much better it was to be a town girl than this farm bunch. Maud and the children thought how nice it was to be in this cool place.

The ice cream lady had a name, but she was always known for her job. Never chatty but the ice cream made her bearable. "What'll you have?"she asked.

Maud ordered cones for each of the three. She talked to the children. She looked into their eyes and she listened as they took a long time to form sentences. She wanted to know what they had to say. The entire time they were in the ice cream parlor the little family held conversation among themselves.

The ice cream lady watched them from her stool at the cash register. She thought of all the things she could be doing if she were home. For her the job really was just about the money. She took no pleasure in her workday except that final minute when she could go home.

Still, she observed the way her customers interacted. It was just as if each child held that woman's attention. To the children it was as if nobody else mattered except for Maud. One of those children was Maud's child. The other two were her grandchildren.

And for Maud, this little part of family had cost her a child of her own.

Once everyone had cooled down, they left. The ice cream lady was glad to have the place to herself once more.

Then back though hilly farm country went the car with 3 little girls slipping into naptime, Maud thinking about her morning. And what to tell her husband about it.

Earlier that day, not long after her husband left for work, Maud's older daughter had come to the house she'd grown up in. She hadn't come as a child visiting her mother, though. She'd come with her own husband and the brother of that husband, to take the two youngest children away.

No doubt the 3 of them thought Maud was the weakest adversary. Otherwise they wouldn't have been so careful to be there once the mister had left for work.

Their point in that visit was the same as it ever was: get possession of the 2 youngest children. Only, Maud refused their demands. Even as they cursed and belittled her to her face. Even through all the threats they threw at her.

In her own home. While her husband wasn't there to protect her. During a busy farmer's wife kind of scorching hot day while taking care of 3 preschoolers. While her oldest daughter, mother of the 2 youngest in her care, was at work. While a divorce was pending from her other daughter's brother-in-law. And Maud held her own.

She neither defended herself nor agreed with them what her response should be. She simply refused to give those children to anyone while they were in her care.

Had they been able to get those 2 youngest children, maybe the ex husband could force their mother to come back to him. If not, she'd never see those children again. Simple as that.

And in that time and place, the law was on his side.

Still, no one ever forced Maud to do anything. Her iron will was so set on doing the right thing that no one could make her do their will.

She'd been entrusted with those children's well being. She'd seen the vile temper of their father, both towards her oldest daughter as well as to his own children.

Yet, it was hardest for her to be reviled by her other daughter. Those words stung deeper than anything the Reno could think to say.

Crying on the inside, she kept her voice calm as she refused that day's assault. Finally they would leave since nobody knew when her husband might come home for lunch. Not one of the 3 teenagers involved in her attack would dare to be caught in the act.

Long after the ice cream part of the day, her husband came home and the family had dinner around the table. Once the little ones were having their bath and getting ready for bed, she told him what her morning had been like.

As he did each time this happened, he reached for his hat and started to leave the house. He was beyond furious at the way his wife had been treated and would have gone after the hoodlums. But Maud put her hand on his arm and soothed him back into his chair. She wouldn't be the reason for family feuding.

When he asked her how she could take that attitude, she simply said, "because she was my baby, too, once upon a time." Then she would cry long and hard.

Because she did the right thing she lost her child. While she protected the family, she was made the victim so none of them would be. Except for the daughter who joined the enemy against her own mother.

I know this because I remember those days, the Dog Days of Missouri. So much drama but only towards her. Never to the oldest daughter or the father of such children as could break a mother's heart.

What cowards they were! And with nothing but love in her heart, what a brave little farmer's wife my mother was.