Mrs. Brooks

I called her Mrs. Brooks.
To her, I was Betty......

Thus began a relationship that has lasted nearly fifty years.
Longer than any I have ever had.

She is my best friend, my confidant, my conscience....
She is my copilot behind the wheel, my social secretary, my finder of parking spaces.

I am her Taxi, her sometimes hairdresser, her landlady,....you get the picture!

Pattie had her first.  Then Jane....Jane's daughter, Tammy, named her.
She called her "Brooksie", because that was as close as she could get to "Mrs. Brooks".
Tammy also noticed that she took off her shoes the minute she came into the house.
"We need to get that MAID some shoes"....

But Brooksie was NOT a maid!
She cleaned our houses, but, from day one, she was our FRIEND!!!

"What's she like?" both Jane and I asked Pattie.
"Do you think she'd clean for us?"
"I'll see", said Pattie.

Jane, Pattie, and I were friends....best friends is an accurate description.
Our husbands worked at Dahlgren, and they were best friends, too.
We spent every New Year's Eve together 'round our kitchen table....sometimes we even lasted till midnight!

We girls would have coffee several times a week. And we often were together when Brooksie was cleaning one of our houses....and when it was lunchtime, we would never even consider going to lunch without Brooksie.
As I said, we were friends!

Brooks has three children. Two girls and a boy. Her younger daughter was a year older than my youngest. Gail was the best dressed of all my children, because Brooks would
come frequently with her daughter's beautiful outgrown clothes and give them to her.

Brooksie cleaned because she wanted to; not because she needed money. She told her then husband she needed something to do, and he asked her what she'd like to do, and she told him she'd like to clean houses.

He was a good provider, but not long after, the marriage failed.
I'll never forget the day she came earlier than usual to our house. Charlie and I sat and listened to her and she cried......

Years later she started taking care of the elderly. She had job after job, taking loving care of them until they died. She cared for my dad when he needed her. She cared for my mother-in-law, which saved my marriage...much as I loved "Arbo", I desperately needed help when she came to live with us... Brooks was our ANGEL!!!

I could write a book about Brooks....There has never been another person, including kinfolk, who has had a bigger impact on this family.

I have to get ready. In a few hours I will pick her up from the beauty shop. She will spend the weekend with us. Tonight we have friends coming, and we will eat and laugh and it will be fun. Brooks arranged this a few days ago....she called me and told me so.