Maudie

by Ursula Evans Fortner  

Prologue

 My mother was born in 1916 at the top of the mountains of Kentucky.  She was the daughter of a proud, old family who traced its heritage to pre-revolutionary war America. The founding members who came from Scotland and England were escapees from the British army.  I suppose, the mountains reminded them of home.  When Mother was born, the mountains were still beautiful, undisturbed by the ravages of the mining which have so devastated Appalachia today.  Mother was blessed with nine brothers and sisters.  The last one born was a premature baby girl who was born after her mother had a stroke.  She lived for several days wrapped in a small box,  kept warm around the clock by heated bricks and fed drop by drop with breast milk expressed from their mother by her older sisters.  Her mother, my grandmother followed her in death two months later. 

Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone born in the mountains lived life as an uneducated, backwoods buffoon.  Many an educated individual came from the mountains of Kentucky.  Mother's brothers became master bricklayers.  Her sisters became wives who were college educated.  My Aunt Opal taught school, my Aunt Margaret married an electrical engineer and travelled the world, and my mom married a soldier.  My Aunt Ursula married, frankly a bastard.  Despite the fact that she was brilliant and well educated, he belittled her unmercifully.  Sadly, she developed mental illness and as a result,  he took her children and abandoned her.

When I was a child,  my Aunt Sue scared me to death.  My mother and her sisters would have hushed conversations about her.  On at least two occasions, she threatened to kill my aunts and my mother.  She lived in a world of fantasy where tea parties with kings and queens and movie stars held sway.  As time progressed life became extremely difficult for my Aunt Sue.  Her illness, in the end, won.  She was murdered in her tiny government owned, welfare apartment in the late 1970's.

Before her husband's cruelty destroyed  her and her illness took hold, Aunt Sue loved to write.  I have no idea what happened to the stories that she wrote.  They disappeared with her.  Perhaps she destroyed them or perhaps her husband did,  I don't know.  Except for Maudie.  Maudie was part of a writing project written in 1950, the year I was born.  It was published, along with several other stories in a compilation of works called the General Man in 1951.  The work was sent to my parents while we were still in Germany.

Maudie is the story of a backwoods mother struggling to raise her babies.  I hope you will read it.  The dialogue is typical of the region and the day.  This is for Aunt Sue.  I understand now.  You should know, your sisters loved you.