The Help

I don't know how many of you have read " the Help" by Kathryn Stockett. It's mainly a "woman's" book, set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's. I thoroughly enjoyed it because even though we were poor we did have "help".

A lady named Geneva who had worked for my Memphis cousins was moving to St. Louis where I lived with my mother and grandmother. My grandmother hired her to do housecleaning and ironing ( remember everything was ironed in those days) and some babysitting because I remember being under Geneva's care at times.

One quite cool morning I was in front of our apartment playing and Geneva yelled down to me to come get a sweater. " No, No, Geneva, I'm not cold" . She called again and again. Finally, I went over to the window and Geneva dropped a sweater to me from our 2nd floor apt and I put it on. It felt so warm and nice and I felt the security and protection of someone that has stayed with me my whole life.

As I've said before , my grandmother,Mimi, loved putting people together. She got Geneva so many jobs that she didn't have time to work for us.

Geneva worked her whole life. I last saw her in 1993, when she was still working at around age 70.