Lift Upping


She was intelligent without formal education
but a capacity for love and kindness to all
and deep appreciated by family and kin.
Strong in my memory is a quality that would
surprise her were she here: Her words were
always soft ad helpful - if not for instruction -
then for encouragement. Her way was peaceful
and quiet and seldom heard in controversy.
When heard it was usually with one of us, the
children of our family.

We learned that Roberta's life at home was bleak
Her place in society was to be the employee of
a poor family. I recall her being given leftover
food and cast off clothes in addition to her meager
salary and seasonal gifts from the family. Every
item received was taken with a big smile and
a Thank ya' with never a negative comment or
gesture. Roberta taught me gentility, kinesis,
and that being cheerful was the way to go.

Actually, the motherly woman misguided me;
I believed for several years that all older women
were duplicates of her. She loved two sets of
children; her own and the five in my family.
Before we moved miles away from them, we
all met at her very modest home and got to
know her offspring and they, us. We brought
presents for each of them, but they outdid us
with homemade dolls and wood carved pistols.
Roberta and her well-mannered family made
it easier for our family to learn more about and
to become friends.

I can still hear her coming in the back door at
5:30 in the morning, singing out to sleeping kids,
"Today's gonna' be another 'Lift uppin' day!"


F William Broome 2009