Idella: Marjorie Rawlings “Perfect Maid”

1. Idella: Marjorie Rawlings “Perfect Maid” Chapter 5 (Part 2) By Andrea Suarez, Emily Garcia, William Losch

2. “Mrs. Baskin Doesn’t Feel Well” Mrs. Baskin’s drinking obsession always was a big problem. One night while eating dinner with her guests, Mr. and Mrs. Owen Young and a friend of theirs were having dinner Mrs. Baskin jumps and hurries to her room without saying a word. When Idella went to check up on her she found Mrs. Baskin completely undressed and stretched out onto the floor. “Then she sat up and looked at me and said, “Don’t you tell them.” The next day she would ask many questions like “Idella, how did I act last night? When did they leave? What did they say?” “I felt sorry for her and wished there was something I could do to help. Often she would promise never to do it again, but the promises were not kept.”

3. “It’s Me or ‘That Woman’” In all the things she had been putting up, something comes up to her attention. “I took the train to New York, and that’s where I was when I got a telegram from Reddick telling me that my grandfather, Papa Jake, had died.” She started on a train trip to Florida, but she knew she was not going to make it so she sent flowers and wired her family that she would not be able to make it in time. The following week she had received a letter from Bernard that had tried to make her feel ashamed about not being able to make the funeral. “He was not even related to the man. I was family, blood-related. Why wasn’t I there?” He ended his letter with the usual “demand”: “When are you coming home?” “But this time he added a new threat: “It’s going to be me or that woman. You make your choice.” “ Come to New York, we’ll be happy. She can’t make you happy; I can.”

4. What Could I Do? Idella now had to meet Mrs. Baskin’s usual demands, but now needed to help her cope with her emotional demands as well. “When Mr. Baskin was away, Mrs. Baskin had no one else to lean on but me.” She would sob out all her fears and anxieties to Idella looking for someone to talk to about most of her problems. “She was a good, kind woman who never meant anyone harm. The person she hurt the most was herself.” ( We think this was one of the best quotes in this chapter ) After putting up with Mrs. Baskin for a long time, Idella was starting to grow weary of having to carry another persons misery and she soon realized she did not know how long she could take this.

5. Breaking Free Idella’s husband, Bernard, came down to Florida for Christmas and before he went back he said to her, “ You do what you want.” She kept writing to Bernard and soon made up her mind that she would leave Mrs. Baskin. “I knew she would try to make me stay, and she could be very strong and determined when she wanted things to be her way.” To not have any arguments or unpleasant scenes she would not tell Mrs. Baskin what she would do. She was taken to the bus station in St. Augustine. “As the bus pulled out, she waved and smiled, and that’s the last time I ever saw Marjorie Rawlings.”

6. Lower Than a Snake Idella wrote to Mrs. Baskin saying that she would be staying in New York with her husband and that she was not working for her anymore. Probably devastated, Mrs. Baskin wrote back saying how could Idella do this to her followed by to or three other letters. Idella never answered any of them. Bernard and Idella found a job, but soon lost it so they moved back to the city. “His many letters begging me to leave Mrs. Baskin and join him made me think that Bernard had changed for the better, but I was wrong.” She tried to leave him, but after a couple months Bernard found her and brought her back. When Idella leaves to go to her mother’s for Christmas she knows that this will be the last time she sees Bernard. From Florida she wrote to him. “The marriage is over, I told him, and the next time you hear from me will be through my lawyer. “ When he wrote back the only thing he was able to say was “Idella , you are lower than a snake.” “Within the space of just a few years I had stood up to two strong people I loved and told them no more.”

7. A Last Word from Mrs. Baskin Idella soon received a letter from Mrs. Baskin mentioning she had never found a maid who could replace her. She had asked for Idella to come to see her, and even went to set a date and a time, but Idella never went. She had soon met her second husband and had a nice life and she knew she could not let herself get tangled up with her again. Weeks later she found out that Mrs. Baskin passed away. She loved Mrs. Baskin and would always miss her. “In many ways she was ahead of her time, especially in her attitude toward race relations. Yet she could not bring herself to allow a person of color to sleep in her home and she often called us ( insert N-word here ) when speaking to other white people.” “When I learned of her death, I spent many hours recalling our years together, and found that I missed her very much and still do.”

8. Bus Parker Idella met Samuel Parker, “Bus” by everyone who knew him, not very long after I left Bernard. Shortly after they became involved. “One day he asked me, right out, “Will you marry me?” “Well, I can’t,” I said. “I’m still married to Bernard.” “I didn’t ask you if you were married,” said Bus. “ I asked you if you would marry me.” This was his way of telling me that he would see that I got the divorce, and he did.” Bus bought a house that Idella picked and they were both married. “I had eight happy years with Bus Parker before he became ill and died of a liver ailment.”

9. Life Goes On Two years after her husband’s death, Idella’s mother dies as well. “These two deaths were very hard for me to bear, and my younger sister Eliza sensed that I needed a change.” Eliza invited her to come and spend some time with her. She settled into the town and even found a job in the Melrose Park Center in Fort Lauderdale. She then retired from teaching in 1976

10. Full Circle After retirement she later sold her house in Reddick and moved to Ocala. “ My father, who was living with my sister, Dorothy, became ill, and I needed to be near to help with his care. This I did until his death in 1990.” During the last few years of his life, Idella’s father was cared for by the help of her and her sisters. Since he was blind some of them would spend time to take him out on rides and describe the carious sights to him. “People often came to visit him and make tapes of what he told them about Reddick.”

11. Mr. Camp Again! After a few years of settling down, Idella was told about an acquaintance named Bob Camp and how he may need help. Idella calls him and she works for him on and off. Mr. Camp’s health slowly starts to fall, but he continues to talk about the old days “with Norton and Marjorie.” “I told him to rest and not talk, and he said, “Idella, I wish you could come over and broil me a lamb chop.” “Those were his last words to me, for Bob Camp passed away on August 15, 1991.” After his passing, Idella then wonders how would her life have turned out if she had worked for Mrs. Camp instead of Mrs. Rawlings. “After all, the good Lord has a plan for each of us, and his plan for me must have been to be Marjorie Rawlings’ “perfect maid.”

12. Will There Be any Stars in My Crown? In Reddick there was an old story told about a black woman doing her week’s laundry. After her clothes were hung to dry she began to sing. Her song became low and rose until it was clear and beautiful. “Will there be any stars in my crown?” she would sing. On the porch next door is a poor white woman, rocking a baby in her arms. The white woman lifted her head and sand the reply in her loud, thin voice, “No, not one. No, not one.” “It is said that the poor colored woman ran into her house, very sad and shedding tears, unable to say anything to the white woman.” “Our friendship was an unusually close one for the times we lived in. Yet no matter what the ties were that bound us together, we were still a black woman and a white woman, and the barrier of race was always there.” “She became the rich, white lady author, and I became quiet, reserved, and slipped back into her shadow, “the perfect maid.”