Mar 2020
MAGGIE AND FLOYD
Maggie and her husband, Floyd, lived in our home in an apartment that originally was the attic. The two of them came into my life when I was in the third grade. But for their coming, especially that of Maggie, I probably would not be here right now able to post this message.
You see, my biological parents--both exceptional human beings--were nonetheless utterly miserably married for 35 years. My mother had wanted a divorce early on, but my father threatened her legally, averring that he would make sure she would never see her three children again if she sought a divorce. Mom acquiesced, spending the rest of her life deeply depressed, watching TV by herself in the living room from 7 pm to 1 am, then reading detective stories until 3 am. My father became rich because he became a workaholic, and because he was extremely smart. They had separate bedrooms.
Maggie became my surrogate mother. She fed me breakfast: poached eggs and grits. She washed my clothes. She gave me a spanking when I needed to be spanked. And she gave me a HUGE hug when I needed love. Maggie, you should know, was black and illiterate, neither of which mattered to me because she loved me and showed it until the day she died when I was in my mid-twenties. Floyd and I debated who was better: Mays or Mantle. Maggie and Floyd are why I abhor racism.
God Bless Maggie and Floyd forever.
Maggie and her husband, Floyd, lived in our home in an apartment that originally was the attic. The two of them came into my life when I was in the third grade. But for their coming, especially that of Maggie, I probably would not be here right now able to post this message.
You see, my biological parents--both exceptional human beings--were nonetheless utterly miserably married for 35 years. My mother had wanted a divorce early on, but my father threatened her legally, averring that he would make sure she would never see her three children again if she sought a divorce. Mom acquiesced, spending the rest of her life deeply depressed, watching TV by herself in the living room from 7 pm to 1 am, then reading detective stories until 3 am. My father became rich because he became a workaholic, and because he was extremely smart. They had separate bedrooms.
Maggie became my surrogate mother. She fed me breakfast: poached eggs and grits. She washed my clothes. She gave me a spanking when I needed to be spanked. And she gave me a HUGE hug when I needed love. Maggie, you should know, was black and illiterate, neither of which mattered to me because she loved me and showed it until the day she died when I was in my mid-twenties. Floyd and I debated who was better: Mays or Mantle. Maggie and Floyd are why I abhor racism.
God Bless Maggie and Floyd forever.
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and human-rights advocate his entire adult life. He recently finished his novel, A CHILD FOR AMARANTH.
