The Jewels

When I was a little girl living near Fort Worth in the little town of Newark, I asked my mother a very important question.  I was the fifth of seven children.  My daddy was a fire fighter and mother had trained to be a teacher.  At that time, mothers were looked down on if they worked outside the home.  In fact, in 1939 when my parents married, Mom had to quit her first teaching job.  Married teachers were not allowed. 

My favorite Christmas doll: Ramona made a bride dress and other clothes to go with the doll from Santa.  They were all packaged in an oatmeal cylinder.  I couldn't figure out ahead of time what could be in that shape of present.  I'm standing beside my baby sister, Camille.

It was very hard to feed and clothe five children on a fire fighter’s salary.  Even when Mom started teaching when I was about three, times were not easy.  I had an older cousin whose hand-me-downs greatly enriched my wardrobe.  My parents bought powdered milk so that we children would have milk to drink.  It was very cheap and perhaps not so tasty, but we didn't know what regular milk tasted like so we drank lots of it.  At Christmas, we received one toy and took great joy in it.

Mom holding me when I was a baby with big sister Melany nearby.

Anyway, my turn had come to ask my mom if we were rich. Turns out all my siblings had asked the same question at some point earlier so my mom had her answer ready.  She told me a story, and here it goes.

Once there was a very rich lady who wore lots of beautiful jewelry.  She couldn't wear all her gold and silver and fine gems so she took great pleasure in taking out all her jewelry boxes and looking at all she owned.  She would put on the lovely pearls and look at herself in the mirror with pride. One day her maid came in while she was admiring all her sparkling treasures.

She decided to give her maid a treat: she would show all her fine jewels to her.  So she called her over and said condescendingly, “I know you don’t have such beautiful things so I thought I’d let you look at mine.”  She felt she would even enjoy them more while watching her maid look longingly at the pretty things.

She was surprised to see her maid look at her with…could it be patience and kindness?  The maid stopped straightening up the things the lady had dropped on the floor and folded her hands in front of her apron.  It was almost as if she ‘put on’ a look of admiration as she watched her employer proudly show each piece of her extensive collection. When the lady was looking toward the jewels, she’d sneak a quick look around at all the work she would have to do later and perhaps looked a little less patient.

Finally, when the lady closed the last box, she asked, “Now, aren't you glad to see all these fine and beautiful things I have?  Perhaps someday you’ll be able to save up and get yourself a jewel.”

At this her maid straightened up and said, “Oh, no ma’am, I already have seven of the finest jewels you've ever seen.  Would you like to see my treasures?”

Her boss was taken aback and wondered why this very efficient and capable maid would find it necessary to lie to her.  There was absolutely no chance that she, with her neatly mended dress and run-down shoes owned seven jewels. 

“Well,” she said doubtfully, “Do you bring them with you to work?”

“No, ma’am,” the maid replied, “but I’d be happy to bring them to work with me tomorrow and show them to you.”

“Well…all right, if you think you can still get your work done…”

The next morning, when the lady had selected her jewelry for the day, just to make sure her maid’s jewels did not outshine her own, she came into the dining room for breakfast. 

She saw the maid beaming with happiness and pride.  “When would you like to see my jewels?” she asked.

Her employer sat down at the table and said, “I guess you might as well bring them in while I eat my breakfast.”

Left to right: Melany, Mickey, me, Ramona, and Marquita standing in front of our  house in Newark.

Immediately, her maid opened the door to the kitchen and waved in a line of seven children from a tall dark-haired girl of about 18 holding a baby girl, a boy just shorter, of about 15, carefully holding the hand of a young toddler boy to a girl at the end with two long blond pigtails.  They were dressed cleanly and neatly and each had a happy smile of their faces.  “These are my lovely jewels,” said the maid.  “I, too, love to look at them and hold them each and every day.  I think they just grow more valuable every year.  I think I’m the richest woman I know.”

The Sisters.  Left to Right: Marquita holding baby sister, Camille, Ramona, and Melany.  I'm in front wearing an Easter hat like the rest of the girls.  We're in front of our house on Bomar in Fort Worth.

As one might imagine, the lady was surprised and a little disgruntled by this display of wealth.  She tried to smile graciously and thank her employee for sharing her children with her.  But every time she took out her jewels to look and gloat over them after that, she couldn't help noticing how cold and unfriendly they were.

Mother didn't have to say much after she told this story.  Each and every one of us went away pondering over the fact that we were a very rich family because there were so many of us children. From that time to this, I've always understood what true wealth is.