Al pulled into the parking lot of the Glen Arm Lumber Company. He was there to have a personal talk with his friend and the owner of the business, Ed. Al's compact, sturdy body emerged from his car. Since the summer heat was already present on this early June day, Al was wearing shorts, a polo shirt and deck shoes. His muscular legs hinted at his favorite pass-time of bicycle racing. He was thirty-nine, but could have passed for a decade younger if not for his graying hair.
Al walked into the small store. The wall to the right displayed carpentry tools of all sorts and sizes and the wall to the left contained various painting supplies. In the center of the room were several display shelves with bins of nails, screws, and other such small items. The wall on the other side of the bins had ceiling to floor shelves lined with cans of Dutch Boy paint. Ed's one employee, Ronnie, was taking newly arrived paint cans from a carton and arranging them by color on the shelves. To the far right was the service counter behind which sat Ed's desk, but his black executive chair was empty.
"Good morning, Al" Ronnie said as he turned around, "You're out early for a Saturday."
"Came by to have a talk with Ed, but it doesn't look like he's here. Didn't see his car in the parking lot," Al replied as he walked around the center display racks.
Ronnie bent down to take another paint can from the carton. "Should be here any moment. He called awhile ago. Said he was running a little late. Some problem at the house."
Ronnie was a tall and thin and in his mid-twenties. He started working for Ed shortly after the lumber company opened three years before.
"No problem," Al replied, "I can wait. How's your wife doing?"
"Great. Thankfully this pregnancy is going smoothly," Ronnie said. The big smile on his face showed how happy he was that he and his wife were not experiencing another miscarriage. In the past two years they had endured that heartbreak three times.
"Well, that's good news. I know the two of you are excited about becoming parents," Al said as he moved toward the door leading into the paint-mixing room. "I'm just gonna wander around in the yard while I wait."
Al went through the paint-mixing room and out into the yard where boards of lumber in various lengths and thicknesses were stacked eight to ten feet high. He heard the sound of tires crackling over the gravel parking lot and walked to the front of the lumber yard where a large metal gate opened out to the parking area.
Ed was walking away from his car as Al called out his name. Ed waved and walked over to his friend. Al noticed for the first time that the hair in Ed's crew cut was totally gray and there were lines around his eyes. He was not yet 42 years old, but he looked at least fifty. The 18 months since Virginia's death had sped up the aging process for Ed. Raising three daughters, even with the help of his mother and a part-time housekeeper, was not easy.
"Didn't know you were coming by," Ed said as he shook his friend's hand, "Chaos at the house this morning, so I'm running late. My mother and the housekeeper just cannot get along. Mom is too old to do the housework herself, but she insists on interfering with everything that Evelyn does. She even accused Evelyn of stealing food from the kitchen."
"That's a tough situation, Ed. Evelyn has worked for you for quite awhile, hasn't she?" Al asked. "You don't think Evelyn would steal, do you?"
Ed shook his head and leaned against the fence. "I don't think so. She helped out when Virginia was pregnant with Becky and then I hired her to work 20 hours a week after Gin died. Hard to imagine she would do that."
"See, you need a wife, Ed. Come to our house for dinner tomorrow night and meet that rider I was telling you about. Who knows, maybe you'll click and your kids will get a new mother," Al said with a smile.
"Damn, Al, I don't know if I am ready for that. And, a bike rider! What kind of a woman races bikes? She really does not sound like my type," Ed said as he lit a Camel cigarette.
"Your situation at home is getting worse. Your mother can't take care of the girls until their grown. No time to be picky," Al replied, "Ruth's got a lot of good points. Hell of a racer. Races like a man, but she cleans up nice and can look really feminine when she puts on a dress and heels." Al winked at Ed.
Ed took a long drag on his cigarette and just stood silently for a moment, thinking. This single father stuff was rough and he was tired of the fights between his mother and Evelyn. "Okay," he said to Al, "I'll come. What time?"
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Ed looked in the mirror as he straighten his tie. He really did not want to go to dinner at Al's house, really did not want to venture out into the dating world again, but he at least wanted to make a good first impression - just in case. He glanced over at the photograph of Virginia on his dresser. "Damn, she was a beautiful woman," he thought, "A real lady. What the hell am I doing going to meet a bicycle racer?"
Thirty minutes later, Ed arrived at Al's house. He closed his car door and looked up at the house that he built for his friends several years before. Besides running his lumber company, he also built houses and did carpentry work. He started his lumber company in a small town near the Baltimore suburb where he lived because he was told by a county commissioner that a large, new highway was going to run right past his property there. Unfortunately, the highway plan was not a done deal. By the time the lumber company was ready to open, the highway construction had begun in another area, leaving Ed's business on a seldom used small town road. He was barely making a living with the lumber yard. Things would really be tight if Virginia had not left a tidy sum of money that she inherited from her mother.
Ed was reaching to knock on the door when it suddenly opened revealing Al's lovely, petite wife Millie dressed in a light blue chiffon dress that accentuated her baby blue eyes. "Ed!" Millie exclaimed in her high little-girl voice, "I am so glad you came. Come in and meet Ruth."
Millie grabbed Ed's arm, pulled him forward, closed the door behind him and quickly led him to the living room. A woman sat in a green chair facing Al who was on the pale yellow sofa. Her back was to Millie and Ed, but she turned around as they entered the room. "Ruth, this is Ed. Ed, this is our friend Ruth," Millie gushed as she pushed Ed towards the occupied chair.
A tall woman stood up and turned to present her hand to Ed. She had a slender athletic build and short medium-brown hair. No one would call her pretty, but she was not unattractive. Ed took her hand and she pumped his vigorously, more like how a man would shake hands. "Good to meet you, Ed," she said with a strong New England accent.
"Same here," Ed replied as he withdrew his hand and walked over to an empty chair on the other side of the room. He watched as Ruth sat back in her chair. Her back was ram-rod straight. In fact, her whole body seemed to be at attention.
The next thirty minutes were spent in one of those get-to-know-you conversations that always annoyed Ed. Ruth, he learned, was from Maine. She was 15 years younger than he was and had never married. She worked as a legal secretary in Washington, D.C. and spent her free time bicycle racing on Al's racing team. In fact, she was the first female racer in their league, and the year before she won a race in which all the other contestants were men. Ed was put off by her mannish activities and the masculine way she presented herself, but he tried to appear interested and engaged in the conversation. At least, she was talkative and intelligent.
Ed suffered through the dinner, barely tasting the food. Millie was not the best cook and everything was overdone. The table conversation revolved around bicycle racing, a topic that did not interest Ed in the least, and Ruth's childhood in Maine and her job in Washington, D.C. Over dessert Millie steered the conversation toward the subject of Ed and his children, but really Millie and Al did most of the talking while Ed ate his cherry pie and sipped his cup of coffee. Ruth listened intently to all the details of Ed and his family, constantly nodding her head and grinning broadly.
Ed's initial assessment of Ruth was that she was not at all his type, but perhaps she was wanting to change her life - quit her job, stop bike racing, settle down. Maybe she was worth a shot, he thought. So he invited her to go to dinner the next weekend and she accepted. That was followed by an invitation from Al and Ruth to attend their next race in four weeks. He reluctantly agreed.
Ed saw Ruth every weekend for a month. Dinner dates at restaurants, another meal at the home of their mutual friends, a concert in Baltimore, and, of course, the race. Ed was disconcerted to see Ruth in a tight fitting bike racing outfit that he thought only belonged on the body of a man. He frowned when he saw that her hair was slicked back with some sort of greasy hair product that plastered it to her head, preventing strands from coming loose and distracting her during the race. This was a different woman than the one with whom he'd been keeping company. At the race, Ruth was competitive in what Ed thought was a very masculine way. She was focused, determined and very disciplined when she raced, leaving many male racers in her wake. She came in second in the race and although he was pleased that she placed, he also thought it was not at all becoming for a woman to be competing in a man's sport. He could not help but compare Ruth to Virginia. Ginny was a refined woman who only wore pants to clean house and the only game at which she competed was the decidedly female card game of bridge. But, still, he was interested enough to see if Ruth clicked with his children. So, after a month of casual dates, he invited her to his house for dinner and to meet his family. Ruth seemed pleased to be invited and acted enthusiastic about meeting the children.
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Ed and his mother Margaret prepared the meal for Ruth's first visit. He was actually a decent cook and often he and Virginia had cooked together. He thought how much he missed her as he put the roast in the oven. As food baked and simmered, Margaret dressed the children in their best clothes and Ed set the table.
Margaret knew Ed needed a mother for his children, but this Ruth woman did not sound like a reasonable choice. She was much younger than Ed and sounded entirely too masculine. "A woman bike racer!" Margaret thought as she combed Becky's blonde hair. She smiled at the sweet baby that never knew her own mother. "You don't want a mother that acts like a man, do you?" she asked out loud. The 20-month-old child giggled, reached out her chubby little hand and touched her grandmother's cheek. "Gramma," she said, "I love you." Margaret sighed and held the toddler tightly against her chest. She knew she could not keep up with Ed's children much longer. She was already in her early seventies and the daily demands of the house and the girls were taking a toll on her. Every night she fell into bed exhausted and each morning she was slower and slower to get out of bed. She loved feeling needed, something she had not felt since her husband Charles died ten years before, but her body was just not up to this much work anymore.
A few minutes before Ruth was to arrive, Ed sat the three girls on the living room sofa. They all looked clean and presentable. Becky looked adorable in the new pink dress that Margaret had purchased for the occasion. She laughed and played hand games with her sisters while they waited for their guest to arrive. Donna and Sharry were not at all happy about meeting Ruth. They were old enough, 8 and 11, to understand what was going on. Ruth was actually interviewing for the job of their mother and they did not want a new mother. They missed their real mother and since they could not have her back, they just wanted Grandma to continue living there and taking care of them. She was nice and they were usually able to manipulate her to get their way.
Ruth paused on the doorstep of Ed's house. Everything about this dinner seemed wrong. She knew Ed was sizing her up as a potential wife and mother for his children. She never imagined herself as a mother or even a wife. But, her parents had made it very clear when they paid for her to move from their isolated farm in Maine to Washington, D.C. that they expected her to stop all her "boy" activities and find a husband. Her interest in sports and lack of interest in domestic activities during high school worried her parents. She did not date although she had many male friends. She had few female friends and she and her much more feminine sister Marian had nothing in common. The fact that she was a successful legal secretary in the nation's capital did not interest or impress her parents in the least. They just wanted to see her married.
Truthfully, her "successful" job barely paid her living expenses. Washington, D.C. was an expensive place to live. In fact, four months ago she made more in bike racing prizes than she made working 40 hours a week for the whole month. Getting married appealed to her simply because it would ease her financial burden. Ed appeared to be a successful business man and the house before her, though not fancy, was definitely very nice. Perhaps being a step-mother for three girls would be enough to please her parents and she would not have to ever get pregnant herself. She took a deep breath and rang the door bell.
Ed opened the door, greeted Ruth with a light kiss on her left cheek and immediately introduced his mother. The three adults stood in the entrance way chatting for a few minutes. Margaret was impressed with Ruth in certain ways and not in others. She was well dressed, had good manners and seemed to be intelligent, but her New England accent was annoying, her hand shake was too strong for a woman and she spoke in a clipped, curt way that came across as unfriendly and cold. Margaret had a strong feeling that she just met her future daughter-in-law and the feeling was unsettling.
Margaret watched as Ed led Ruth to the sofa where the three girls were sitting. Margaret was proud of her granddaughters' appearances, but she knew that Donna and Sharry resented meeting this woman that may become their step-mother and she worried about what they might say. Although both girls politely greeted Ruth, neither acted warm or welcoming. It was obvious they wanted to be anywhere but there. Ruth sat on the arm of the sofa and tried unsuccessfully to engage the two older girls in a conversation about school or their favorite games. Each girl only answered direct questions and then with as few words as possible. Margaret actually felt sorry for Ruth because she was trying to connect with the girls and they were being distant and uncooperative. It was a relief when Ruth finally gave up on Donna and Sharry, stood up and moved closer to Becky.
Ruth put her arms out to Becky and the toddler did not hesitate to reach her own arms upward to be picked up. Ruth lifted the child in her arms as Donna and Sharry quickly made their getaway and moved to the loveseat on the other side of the room. Ruth sat down on the now empty sofa and held Becky gently on her lap, cooing to her in soft motherly tones. Margaret was impressed with how the woman handled Becky and how Becky responded to her.
Ed, too, watched closely how the introductions were going. He was dismayed with the cold reactions of the older girls, but he also knew how much they missed their mother and resented another woman being in his life. He admitted to himself that his mother was too lenient with his oldest girls, allowing them to be pouty, demanding and self-absorbed. As much as he was disappointed in their attitudes, he was relieved at how open and loving Ruth was to Becky and how Becky reacted to her. Ruth was talking to Becky about her pretty dress; she asked about her toys and listened quite intently as the very talkative Becky babbled her answers. Becky was smiling and reaching out to Ruth often, completely engaged in what she was saying. Watching their interaction pushed Ed to think that he may have found a mother for his children. He was sure that Donna and Sharry would adjust in time and he felt deeply that Becky needed Ruth. Did he love Ruth? No, but he thought he might learn to love her - certainly not as he had loved Virginia, but in a way that might be enough for a successful marriage. He just needed Ruth to soften up, be more feminine, and it might just work out.
Ed listened as Ruth encouraged Becky to say the nickname version of her proper name. "Ruthie," she said over and over again touching her left index finger against her chest each time while her right arm was tenderly wrapped around Becky's back. Each time Ruth said her nickname Becky either giggled or babbled words that sounded nothing like Ruthie. Ruth, however, did not give up and finally Becky flashed one of her earth-stopping big smiles, pointed at the woman before her and said, "Oofie!" Ruth laughed heartily and responded, "Well, Oofie it is! I guess I have a new name."
On that summer day in 1956, no one watching the interplay between the strange woman from Maine and the motherless little girl had any idea that until Ruth's death in 2012, Becky would always call her step-mother "Oofie".
Al walked into the small store. The wall to the right displayed carpentry tools of all sorts and sizes and the wall to the left contained various painting supplies. In the center of the room were several display shelves with bins of nails, screws, and other such small items. The wall on the other side of the bins had ceiling to floor shelves lined with cans of Dutch Boy paint. Ed's one employee, Ronnie, was taking newly arrived paint cans from a carton and arranging them by color on the shelves. To the far right was the service counter behind which sat Ed's desk, but his black executive chair was empty.
"Good morning, Al" Ronnie said as he turned around, "You're out early for a Saturday."
"Came by to have a talk with Ed, but it doesn't look like he's here. Didn't see his car in the parking lot," Al replied as he walked around the center display racks.
Ronnie bent down to take another paint can from the carton. "Should be here any moment. He called awhile ago. Said he was running a little late. Some problem at the house."
Ronnie was a tall and thin and in his mid-twenties. He started working for Ed shortly after the lumber company opened three years before.
"No problem," Al replied, "I can wait. How's your wife doing?"
"Great. Thankfully this pregnancy is going smoothly," Ronnie said. The big smile on his face showed how happy he was that he and his wife were not experiencing another miscarriage. In the past two years they had endured that heartbreak three times.
"Well, that's good news. I know the two of you are excited about becoming parents," Al said as he moved toward the door leading into the paint-mixing room. "I'm just gonna wander around in the yard while I wait."
Al went through the paint-mixing room and out into the yard where boards of lumber in various lengths and thicknesses were stacked eight to ten feet high. He heard the sound of tires crackling over the gravel parking lot and walked to the front of the lumber yard where a large metal gate opened out to the parking area.
Ed was walking away from his car as Al called out his name. Ed waved and walked over to his friend. Al noticed for the first time that the hair in Ed's crew cut was totally gray and there were lines around his eyes. He was not yet 42 years old, but he looked at least fifty. The 18 months since Virginia's death had sped up the aging process for Ed. Raising three daughters, even with the help of his mother and a part-time housekeeper, was not easy.
"Didn't know you were coming by," Ed said as he shook his friend's hand, "Chaos at the house this morning, so I'm running late. My mother and the housekeeper just cannot get along. Mom is too old to do the housework herself, but she insists on interfering with everything that Evelyn does. She even accused Evelyn of stealing food from the kitchen."
"That's a tough situation, Ed. Evelyn has worked for you for quite awhile, hasn't she?" Al asked. "You don't think Evelyn would steal, do you?"
Ed shook his head and leaned against the fence. "I don't think so. She helped out when Virginia was pregnant with Becky and then I hired her to work 20 hours a week after Gin died. Hard to imagine she would do that."
"See, you need a wife, Ed. Come to our house for dinner tomorrow night and meet that rider I was telling you about. Who knows, maybe you'll click and your kids will get a new mother," Al said with a smile.
"Damn, Al, I don't know if I am ready for that. And, a bike rider! What kind of a woman races bikes? She really does not sound like my type," Ed said as he lit a Camel cigarette.
"Your situation at home is getting worse. Your mother can't take care of the girls until their grown. No time to be picky," Al replied, "Ruth's got a lot of good points. Hell of a racer. Races like a man, but she cleans up nice and can look really feminine when she puts on a dress and heels." Al winked at Ed.
Ed took a long drag on his cigarette and just stood silently for a moment, thinking. This single father stuff was rough and he was tired of the fights between his mother and Evelyn. "Okay," he said to Al, "I'll come. What time?"
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Ed looked in the mirror as he straighten his tie. He really did not want to go to dinner at Al's house, really did not want to venture out into the dating world again, but he at least wanted to make a good first impression - just in case. He glanced over at the photograph of Virginia on his dresser. "Damn, she was a beautiful woman," he thought, "A real lady. What the hell am I doing going to meet a bicycle racer?"
Thirty minutes later, Ed arrived at Al's house. He closed his car door and looked up at the house that he built for his friends several years before. Besides running his lumber company, he also built houses and did carpentry work. He started his lumber company in a small town near the Baltimore suburb where he lived because he was told by a county commissioner that a large, new highway was going to run right past his property there. Unfortunately, the highway plan was not a done deal. By the time the lumber company was ready to open, the highway construction had begun in another area, leaving Ed's business on a seldom used small town road. He was barely making a living with the lumber yard. Things would really be tight if Virginia had not left a tidy sum of money that she inherited from her mother.
Ed was reaching to knock on the door when it suddenly opened revealing Al's lovely, petite wife Millie dressed in a light blue chiffon dress that accentuated her baby blue eyes. "Ed!" Millie exclaimed in her high little-girl voice, "I am so glad you came. Come in and meet Ruth."
Millie grabbed Ed's arm, pulled him forward, closed the door behind him and quickly led him to the living room. A woman sat in a green chair facing Al who was on the pale yellow sofa. Her back was to Millie and Ed, but she turned around as they entered the room. "Ruth, this is Ed. Ed, this is our friend Ruth," Millie gushed as she pushed Ed towards the occupied chair.
A tall woman stood up and turned to present her hand to Ed. She had a slender athletic build and short medium-brown hair. No one would call her pretty, but she was not unattractive. Ed took her hand and she pumped his vigorously, more like how a man would shake hands. "Good to meet you, Ed," she said with a strong New England accent.
"Same here," Ed replied as he withdrew his hand and walked over to an empty chair on the other side of the room. He watched as Ruth sat back in her chair. Her back was ram-rod straight. In fact, her whole body seemed to be at attention.
The next thirty minutes were spent in one of those get-to-know-you conversations that always annoyed Ed. Ruth, he learned, was from Maine. She was 15 years younger than he was and had never married. She worked as a legal secretary in Washington, D.C. and spent her free time bicycle racing on Al's racing team. In fact, she was the first female racer in their league, and the year before she won a race in which all the other contestants were men. Ed was put off by her mannish activities and the masculine way she presented herself, but he tried to appear interested and engaged in the conversation. At least, she was talkative and intelligent.
Ed suffered through the dinner, barely tasting the food. Millie was not the best cook and everything was overdone. The table conversation revolved around bicycle racing, a topic that did not interest Ed in the least, and Ruth's childhood in Maine and her job in Washington, D.C. Over dessert Millie steered the conversation toward the subject of Ed and his children, but really Millie and Al did most of the talking while Ed ate his cherry pie and sipped his cup of coffee. Ruth listened intently to all the details of Ed and his family, constantly nodding her head and grinning broadly.
Ed's initial assessment of Ruth was that she was not at all his type, but perhaps she was wanting to change her life - quit her job, stop bike racing, settle down. Maybe she was worth a shot, he thought. So he invited her to go to dinner the next weekend and she accepted. That was followed by an invitation from Al and Ruth to attend their next race in four weeks. He reluctantly agreed.
Ed saw Ruth every weekend for a month. Dinner dates at restaurants, another meal at the home of their mutual friends, a concert in Baltimore, and, of course, the race. Ed was disconcerted to see Ruth in a tight fitting bike racing outfit that he thought only belonged on the body of a man. He frowned when he saw that her hair was slicked back with some sort of greasy hair product that plastered it to her head, preventing strands from coming loose and distracting her during the race. This was a different woman than the one with whom he'd been keeping company. At the race, Ruth was competitive in what Ed thought was a very masculine way. She was focused, determined and very disciplined when she raced, leaving many male racers in her wake. She came in second in the race and although he was pleased that she placed, he also thought it was not at all becoming for a woman to be competing in a man's sport. He could not help but compare Ruth to Virginia. Ginny was a refined woman who only wore pants to clean house and the only game at which she competed was the decidedly female card game of bridge. But, still, he was interested enough to see if Ruth clicked with his children. So, after a month of casual dates, he invited her to his house for dinner and to meet his family. Ruth seemed pleased to be invited and acted enthusiastic about meeting the children.
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Ed and his mother Margaret prepared the meal for Ruth's first visit. He was actually a decent cook and often he and Virginia had cooked together. He thought how much he missed her as he put the roast in the oven. As food baked and simmered, Margaret dressed the children in their best clothes and Ed set the table.
Margaret knew Ed needed a mother for his children, but this Ruth woman did not sound like a reasonable choice. She was much younger than Ed and sounded entirely too masculine. "A woman bike racer!" Margaret thought as she combed Becky's blonde hair. She smiled at the sweet baby that never knew her own mother. "You don't want a mother that acts like a man, do you?" she asked out loud. The 20-month-old child giggled, reached out her chubby little hand and touched her grandmother's cheek. "Gramma," she said, "I love you." Margaret sighed and held the toddler tightly against her chest. She knew she could not keep up with Ed's children much longer. She was already in her early seventies and the daily demands of the house and the girls were taking a toll on her. Every night she fell into bed exhausted and each morning she was slower and slower to get out of bed. She loved feeling needed, something she had not felt since her husband Charles died ten years before, but her body was just not up to this much work anymore.
A few minutes before Ruth was to arrive, Ed sat the three girls on the living room sofa. They all looked clean and presentable. Becky looked adorable in the new pink dress that Margaret had purchased for the occasion. She laughed and played hand games with her sisters while they waited for their guest to arrive. Donna and Sharry were not at all happy about meeting Ruth. They were old enough, 8 and 11, to understand what was going on. Ruth was actually interviewing for the job of their mother and they did not want a new mother. They missed their real mother and since they could not have her back, they just wanted Grandma to continue living there and taking care of them. She was nice and they were usually able to manipulate her to get their way.
Ruth paused on the doorstep of Ed's house. Everything about this dinner seemed wrong. She knew Ed was sizing her up as a potential wife and mother for his children. She never imagined herself as a mother or even a wife. But, her parents had made it very clear when they paid for her to move from their isolated farm in Maine to Washington, D.C. that they expected her to stop all her "boy" activities and find a husband. Her interest in sports and lack of interest in domestic activities during high school worried her parents. She did not date although she had many male friends. She had few female friends and she and her much more feminine sister Marian had nothing in common. The fact that she was a successful legal secretary in the nation's capital did not interest or impress her parents in the least. They just wanted to see her married.
Truthfully, her "successful" job barely paid her living expenses. Washington, D.C. was an expensive place to live. In fact, four months ago she made more in bike racing prizes than she made working 40 hours a week for the whole month. Getting married appealed to her simply because it would ease her financial burden. Ed appeared to be a successful business man and the house before her, though not fancy, was definitely very nice. Perhaps being a step-mother for three girls would be enough to please her parents and she would not have to ever get pregnant herself. She took a deep breath and rang the door bell.
Ed opened the door, greeted Ruth with a light kiss on her left cheek and immediately introduced his mother. The three adults stood in the entrance way chatting for a few minutes. Margaret was impressed with Ruth in certain ways and not in others. She was well dressed, had good manners and seemed to be intelligent, but her New England accent was annoying, her hand shake was too strong for a woman and she spoke in a clipped, curt way that came across as unfriendly and cold. Margaret had a strong feeling that she just met her future daughter-in-law and the feeling was unsettling.
Margaret watched as Ed led Ruth to the sofa where the three girls were sitting. Margaret was proud of her granddaughters' appearances, but she knew that Donna and Sharry resented meeting this woman that may become their step-mother and she worried about what they might say. Although both girls politely greeted Ruth, neither acted warm or welcoming. It was obvious they wanted to be anywhere but there. Ruth sat on the arm of the sofa and tried unsuccessfully to engage the two older girls in a conversation about school or their favorite games. Each girl only answered direct questions and then with as few words as possible. Margaret actually felt sorry for Ruth because she was trying to connect with the girls and they were being distant and uncooperative. It was a relief when Ruth finally gave up on Donna and Sharry, stood up and moved closer to Becky.
Ruth put her arms out to Becky and the toddler did not hesitate to reach her own arms upward to be picked up. Ruth lifted the child in her arms as Donna and Sharry quickly made their getaway and moved to the loveseat on the other side of the room. Ruth sat down on the now empty sofa and held Becky gently on her lap, cooing to her in soft motherly tones. Margaret was impressed with how the woman handled Becky and how Becky responded to her.
Ed, too, watched closely how the introductions were going. He was dismayed with the cold reactions of the older girls, but he also knew how much they missed their mother and resented another woman being in his life. He admitted to himself that his mother was too lenient with his oldest girls, allowing them to be pouty, demanding and self-absorbed. As much as he was disappointed in their attitudes, he was relieved at how open and loving Ruth was to Becky and how Becky reacted to her. Ruth was talking to Becky about her pretty dress; she asked about her toys and listened quite intently as the very talkative Becky babbled her answers. Becky was smiling and reaching out to Ruth often, completely engaged in what she was saying. Watching their interaction pushed Ed to think that he may have found a mother for his children. He was sure that Donna and Sharry would adjust in time and he felt deeply that Becky needed Ruth. Did he love Ruth? No, but he thought he might learn to love her - certainly not as he had loved Virginia, but in a way that might be enough for a successful marriage. He just needed Ruth to soften up, be more feminine, and it might just work out.
Ed listened as Ruth encouraged Becky to say the nickname version of her proper name. "Ruthie," she said over and over again touching her left index finger against her chest each time while her right arm was tenderly wrapped around Becky's back. Each time Ruth said her nickname Becky either giggled or babbled words that sounded nothing like Ruthie. Ruth, however, did not give up and finally Becky flashed one of her earth-stopping big smiles, pointed at the woman before her and said, "Oofie!" Ruth laughed heartily and responded, "Well, Oofie it is! I guess I have a new name."
On that summer day in 1956, no one watching the interplay between the strange woman from Maine and the motherless little girl had any idea that until Ruth's death in 2012, Becky would always call her step-mother "Oofie".
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