Eiddew: Day 1: I Was Annie's Baby

Day #1 - I was Annie's baby. (Originally posted at eiddew.blogspot.com)

Annie became my caretaker in 1961 when I was 6 months old. My family moved from Charleston WV to Montgomery AL so my father could become Associate Minister at Trinity Presbyterian Church. A big step up from the two small, rural congregations he was serving in WV. My mother taught speech & drama at a local school. So Annie came to take care of my brother & I. I really feel she saved me & I know she made me better. In the 3 1/2 years she was with me, Annie taught me trust, unconditional love, color blindness, strength, beauty, compassion. In Annie's world I could do no wrong & I took advantage of that. I was always getting my brother in trouble. I was petted & pampered & loved as I was. She made me feel like I was the best there ever was. We moved to Ft. Lauderdale FL when I was 4, so my father could be Associate Minister at Coral Ridge Presbyterian. I missed my Annie so much. Mother wasn't teaching anymore - she was being the good minister's wife & involved in the church activities. I was starting school & my brother was in a special school in Virginia because of recently detected brain damage caused when he was born. I was now essentially an only child & mother could handle one. After FL we moved to Burlington NC where father was now Minister in his own right. From there we moved back to Montgomery, where father was involved in founding a new Presbyterian denomination (like we needed another one!). For me this was wonderful! Annie was back in my life! She was older, but still there. Once again I was her focus, her love, her baby. She made me feel so important - that I really mattered - that I was more than the prerequisite child. But now I was able to learn more about Annie. I would listen to her stories of her life singing in Harlem in the 20's - the clubs, the fashions, the music. She showed me pictures of herself all dressed up. She was beautiful! She told me about playing the organ at her church in Montgomery for Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights years. I learned never to put any one in a preconceived box because you never know who they have been or who they can become.

I lost Annie during that 5 years. I don't remember why, but she stopped coming to help. I suspect it was because she was poorly because I can remember her arthritic hands trying to iron & clean. I can remember her slow, shuffling steps as she moved around the house. I remember her soft, snow white hair. But most of all I remember the love in her smile when she looked at me & the love in her hands as she tended to me. I remember the love & it has carried me through the last 40 something years -