Memoir
Fairview Bungalow
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Front right; Shirley McKissick ( 08/25/1919-11/22/2002)
FAIRVIEW BUNGALOW Special Times Bring Special Girls.
I have to tell you about the life of an exceptional girl born at an extraordinary time in a town called Fairview. My mother, shared stories about her life constantly, and I listened... she had plenty to say, for it was an exciting time to live and she had been a willful child.
“You should put your story in writing.” Often, I repeated those words, she had the ability, but she never did. Yet, I remember her story, every word. Born Helene Shirley, named for her aunt whom she never warmed to and didn’t care for the name, she began insisting on being called by her middle name. It worked at home, but at school—she was still Helene.
•••
Helene Shirley McKissick was a willful child, who gave her mother cause to massage her brow and say such things as, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
She heard that statement often from her mother. Winifred was a striking woman, with soft, brown eyes, and dark hair that she wore in the Gibson Girl style, piled loosely on top of her head in a large bun, flattering her oval face. Her heavy arms often deep in the tub of the new washing machine, but this day, she was focused on her daughter as she scurried past her toward the door.
“Shirley, slow down! Watch those linens near the stove.”
Mornings, Shirley sat up, and touched her toes on the brick that lay cooled, wrapped in the sheets gathered at the end of the bed. A new day to explore the farm and meet with the cousins across the field.
READ MORE
fairviewbungelow.pdf
I have to tell you about the life of an exceptional girl born at an extraordinary time in a town called Fairview. My mother, shared stories about her life constantly, and I listened... she had plenty to say, for it was an exciting time to live and she had been a willful child.
“You should put your story in writing.” Often, I repeated those words, she had the ability, but she never did. Yet, I remember her story, every word. Born Helene Shirley, named for her aunt whom she never warmed to and didn’t care for the name, she began insisting on being called by her middle name. It worked at home, but at school—she was still Helene.
•••
Helene Shirley McKissick was a willful child, who gave her mother cause to massage her brow and say such things as, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?”
She heard that statement often from her mother. Winifred was a striking woman, with soft, brown eyes, and dark hair that she wore in the Gibson Girl style, piled loosely on top of her head in a large bun, flattering her oval face. Her heavy arms often deep in the tub of the new washing machine, but this day, she was focused on her daughter as she scurried past her toward the door.
“Shirley, slow down! Watch those linens near the stove.”
Mornings, Shirley sat up, and touched her toes on the brick that lay cooled, wrapped in the sheets gathered at the end of the bed. A new day to explore the farm and meet with the cousins across the field.
READ MORE
fairviewbungelow.pdf