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Well, I suppose I had better go back to bed and see if I can go to sleep, as I rolled and tumbled and tossed until I finally got up and went in the kitchen to see what time it was and it was half past three so I suppose its half past the corner now. May be if I run fast I can catch it. Nighty night until another time. I should have said A.M.
When my mother died I wasn't quite two years old and they had her in a beautiful white casket trimmed with lace and a lovely white embroidered gown on and they said I'd walk around the casket and pat it, and say, Mommy sleeping, Mommy sleeping. Then after awhile I'd come back and say, I want to see my mommy so they'd hold me up to see her and I'd always say, Mommy sleeping and they said for days after her funeral I'd ask, is mommy still seeping? They got a colored girl to come and stay to help sister Olla out as they had taken sister Emma to the Charity hospital as the shock of our mothers death caused her to lose her voice. I don't remember exactly how long she was in the hospital but I think it was around three months. She couldn't even speak in a whisper. She and Jahue Murphy had been courting for some time before our mother died. So when she was in the hospital he'd go to see her every week end and when he'd come back he'd always come right on up to the house and tell us all the news. He said the Sisters (nurses) were all so good and kind to her. They said broken he'd come from N.O. I'd run to meet him and he'd grab me up in his arms and hug and love me as if I was his child. Jahue used to tell Emma after I was married that she still seems like our girl. Emma said he loved our mother as much as he did his mother.
The colored girl I spoke of was Clara Acker and she took all the responsibility of me and when she'd go to bathe me I'd tell her, don't wash mine feet Tarra, cut them off, cut them off. They said for a long time after our mother was gone every now and then I'd say, I want to see my mommy. They said she was one of the prettiest corpses they'd ever seen. All of the Logtown people and many in Pearlington were foolish about her. They asked my daddy if he'd mind if they bought her tombstone and he said if that's what you want and then they bought a large vase and it was a beautiful thing. My father kept it on her grave all the summer months but then he'd bring it home and put it upstairs in the winter because it was so thin. So finally some body stole it from the upstairs. We had a colored woman who used to work for us sometimes and we had an
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