mrs. edwards

Eleanor Edwards was her name, but I knew her as Mrs. Edwards. She was my babysitter after school until my parents came home. One of my siblings was annoyed at the inaccuracy because Mrs. Edwards was not officially married. They wanted me to call her Miss Edwards. Mrs. Edwards lived with two other women her age - the age of my grandmother - and when I asked her if I should call her Mrs. Edwards she said, "That will be fine."

Mrs. Edwards did a stint in the Navy. She taught me to make my bed so that a quarter would bounce. And she tested me with an actual quarter. Mrs. Edwards taught me how to swing a hammer to pound a nail as she built us a very cool playhouse in the back yard.

She drove a crazy little white batmobile kind of car that had as many sliding switches on the dash as an organ does. I have never seen another car like hers. One day she was driving us to her house when a large rock bounced up and put a nearly golf ball sized hole in her windshield. We got to her house and she pulled into her garage, which was an excellently kept workshop, and told me to wait in the car.

When she came back she gave me three pieces of gum and told me to chew them all up at the same time while she did the same. While we were chomping on our chews she went outside the garage and got a handful of sand somewhere. She walked back to me and told me to spit my gum into her hand. I thought it a bit unsanitary, but did it anyway. She poured the sand over my gum and then spit her own gum on top of that sand. She kneaded and rolled the gum and sand together to make a ball of homogenous putty. She ripped the ball in half and pushed half up from inside the car to plug the hole in the windshield. She told me to put my hand up to hold it while she went to the outside. She then pressed the remaining impromptu putty into the hole from the top.

She was the most amazing person I had ever met and really she still hasn't been topped - equaled perhaps, but not topped. It was just like the open and complete love that she gave to me gruffly and simply. She gave her love to me freely and because of that I knew beyond any doubt that I was loved - and loved by a person worthy of love and respect too. I first learned what love was from Mrs. Edwards and my Gramma Grace. These two old gals actually had a fair bit in common - except Mrs. Edwards was more masculine - wearing t-shirts and pants and looking like a cross between a grandma and a stern power mechanics teacher.

Every day when I got home from kindergarten she would greet me with a big bear hug and we would walk into the house together. I had morning kindergarten and came home in the afternoon and so it was just me and Mrs. Edwards until Marty and Becky got home later in the day. We would often watch the Andy Griffith show or work on some project that she had decided we should take on. She sometimes made us chocolate frosting and peanut butter sandwiches and swore me to secrecy which I was completely happy to provide!

When it was time for my nap (possibly sugar crash) she would lay on Marty's bed in our room and say, "Let's have a contest to see who can fall asleep first." and I would lay down and fall asleep immediately. I never saw her sleep once.

I doubt Mrs. Edwards knew how great a gift she gave to me - I think I have a lot of my confidence and some of the better points of my character thanks to Mrs. Edwards. I loved her with all my heart and she loved me.