One of my wishes is to someday come upon an old forgotten diary of someone who lived long ago. OK, not too long ago, maybe within the last 100 years. I would love to read about how they lived, their likes and dislikes, and any secrets that they kept. (Future readers can forget about finding secrets here because I am just an ordinary girl–seriously).
When I was a kid and we first moved to our house on Long Island in 1980, there were 2 little old ladies who lived in the apartment on the top floor. One of them, Mrs. Glenn had no family. Her husband had died many years before and she had no children. But we loved her. She would tell my mother great stories, which now I’ll have to pester her for, and she would buy my sister and me Italian ices at the candy store around the corner (Cherry was the best — but every now and then I would fall into the trap of getting the blue rainbow one because it was so much prettier–and every single time I did that, I was immediately reminded that I liked the cherry ice the best–yeah, I know–lots of eye-rolling here).
Anyway, Mrs Glenn died shortly after we moved in. I have no idea what happened to all of her stuff, but I do remember being upstairs with my mother when she was getting the apartment ready to paint. She pulled back the dresser and found what could only have been Mrs. Glenn’s wedding ring. It was just a simple, thin, white gold band that would only fit someone with very thin fingers—aka my mother! (and years later we discovered that it also fit my sister AND me, thankyouverymuch). Unfortunately my sister “got” it–whatever. I’m going to ask her about it.
But wouldn’t it have been super cool if she had left behind a diary of her life???? Totally! I think I will try to research her. I mean after all, she was a human being, and just because she had no family, didn’t mean she fell out of the sky one day. I wonder about that Mrs. Glenn…..
Edit: I just got off the phone with my mom about Mrs. Glenn. I got a couple of things wrong. One is that she wasn’t the one to tell my mother all the great stories–the other woman did. And the other is that I had conveniently forgotten that I got the ring from the sister (most likely I bullied it out of her paws). Clearly I should have left it with her because in 2003, our old house was broken into and nearly all my jewelry was stolen, along with lots of other stuff. The jewelry included Mrs. Glenns ring. Darn it!
The other interesting info. I found out was that Mrs Glenn was from England and that a friend visited her once a week, and that she may have never married. Weird. So why the wedding ring? We don’t know, but my mom says she thinks the woman wasn’t married. The other woman had lost her husband. Did I mention that I was 7 years old in 1980–that’s why I have some things mixed up. I didn’t even remember that Mrs Glenn had a British accent. Unfortunately, neither of my parents remember what her first name was; but they promised to call if they remember.
Adventures on Brook Road II 