As I looked out the living room
windows, two scarlet patches of leaves were there in the midst of the green to
delight me. A tree that Gerald planted over 11 years ago. Looking out the kitchen window across the
driveway and behind the garden, tall brown corn awaits the combine. On down the lane, our neighbor’s lush green
soybean plot is pleasingly speckled with yellow leaves. Everything is changing
for the end of this growing season and preparing for winter’s rest.
Brian and Mary Ellen are working
as fast as they can to gather this summer’s corn crop with its over-the-top yields. After last summer’s drought, they are
rejoicing over these abundant results from their hard work.
Mary Ellen has learned to drive
the pickup with the trailer behind pulling the golden grains to the market.
This is not easy to do, and she was fearful at the prospect. Yet that did not stop her from jumping in to
assist in this way. Brian put new tires
on the trailer so that she did not have to fear a blow-out that might very well
topple a wagon.
I am amazed that she has been able
to quickly learn this new skill, but I should not be. One adjective I have used to describe her
since she was a little child is the word “competent.” Need rice crispy treats? Little Mary Ellen was good at it. Need your hair fixed? Mary Ellen could do it. Drive a tractor? Mary Ellen did. Sew a garment? She did it all the time. Make a gift?
Her craft skills were fine. Need
a pianist? Yes, Mary would.help you
out. Or a soloist? Sure.
She was always my helper in so many ways.
In college, she shone in ag
communication classes and organizations. She even took one semester out to work
as a secretary. After graduation in the
middle of a recession, she went right to work as a reporter on our local
newspaper, and took and developed photographs as needed leaving the old Marion Daily Republican building in the
middle of the night if necessary to meet a deadline. It scared me to death but
did not faze her. But, of course, she
wanted a better job with benefits and advancement possibilities.
No agriculture jobs were available
with the ag crisis going on, so she gave up looking for the better job in Illinois ,
and she decided on a move to Nashville ,
where she joined her sister Katherine. That was a great place for someone who loved
music as both those daughters did. Temporarily
she stayed in Katherine’s apartment and took temporary jobs, where I am sure
she was appreciated for her competence by that agency. Soon she was hired as a writer for Tennessee Magazine. And eventually she was editor. She was enjoying her success and the travels
it provided her and all the fascinating people she met, and then her former
boyfriend came back into the picture.
I had it in my head that the boyfriend
might be giving her an engagement ring that Christmas at Pondside Farm, but
that didn’t happen. What did happen is
he gave her the ring down in Nashville ;
and on New Year’s Eve, she called us to
say that they were being married that night in the chapel on Music Row. They
had just decided.
Should we drive down? No, Brian’s mother was much too far away to
make it from New York
and maybe it would be fairer if we didn’t come either. His cousin and fiancé were in town from Florida to offer support, and her girl friends were
helping her with flowers and cake. She
had time for a whirlwind shopping trip, and she looked gorgeous in her short two-piece
wedding dress in the beautiful photos that they had to share with us.
We had an exciting family
celebration when they came up for the
weekend at Pondside Farm. From there,
Brian had to go back to northern Illinois
where he was working in his home area, and Jeannie sweetly drove Mary Ellen
back to Nashville . That long-distance marriage did not last long
until phone and flight bills made it easy for them to decide they wanted to be
together more than on the weekend, so Brian moved down to look for work
there. That did not last long either
because Brian was offered a full-time job with DeKalb that he had been seeking,
and were soon settled in Iowa .
As Brian advanced in his career,
there were moves from Iowa , where their two
children were born, to Michigan to Indiana to St. Louis , and
finally to their country home five miles south of Waggoner and its population
of 250 while Brian worked north of Springfield . So there were lots of houses for Mary Ellen
to decorate and settle in, many schools to help her children adjust to, family
medical needs to be attended to, and eventually a successful real estate career
that had to be aborted with the move to
Waggoner and then rebuilt in Springfield, where she continued developing her
public relations skills and experience, which she always had a talent for. .
Now with their two children
starting their own adult lives, Mary Ellen is back in her home rural community
with Brian working in an office in their home and driving into St. Louis when necessary. For the moment, Mary Ellen is a homemaker
and a truck driver, who still likes to help me out carrying in a meat loaf or
slow-cooked ribs or sharing egg salad she said they would get tired of. It is so fun to have her nearby to talk to
and to see what new thing she has achieved with the home they have moved
into.
Until harvest is over, she is
sharing this busy season with her husband.
Brianna was home for Murray
State
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