Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus

Author:Allan Gurganus [Gurganus, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: United States, War Stories, Widows, Historical Fiction, Veterans - Family Relationships, Veterans, United States - History - Civil War; 1861-1865 - Veterans, General, Literary, Older Women, Southern States, Historical, Family Relationships, Fiction, Domestic Fiction, Media Tie-In
ISBN: 9780375726637
Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries
Published: 1989-01-02T04:00:00+00:00

Good Help

A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.—It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

—ECCLESIASTES 7:1–3

EVEN WITH the nine, even mostly managing alone, I never wanted a servant to boss.

Momma grew up in a household staffed by twenty-four black helpers. Most tended the yard and horses. Her enjoyment of good service got stunted early on. The accident taught her. She passed such fear to me, her only daughter. Even at my present age, I try helping every waitress who tries serving me. “Here, honey, that looks heavy,” I stand, sometimes jostling her tray, sometimes spilling stuff.

Momma’d just turned five when this here mishap grabbed her. It proved nearbout fatal. She ever after blamed a certain nurse, one Bible-believing older lady named Maimie L. Beech. This woman dozed off whilst minding the white baby. Accident. Child Bianca floated in a coma for three weeks. Neighbors brought casseroles enough to pave a modern-day patio.

Bianca’s poppa—the “Indigo Baron” of Falls, North Carolina—had three smart older daughters. But he favored his unruly baby. With her now drifting beyond help and love, past the power of money, young Angus McCloud nearly lost his mind.

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