Great Em

She was a great dame a greatest thing that ever happened to Cyprus. A woman rent collector. But what a woman. Some wondered what she was. She, who did a woman who collected her husband's a wage.

No one thought to speak to her as she did not understand all she understood was numbers. And mostly the town was poor.

She was a miracle; a marvel she did the job and he did not have to pay her. Husno her husband for he bought her. She did not know it because she fought like a man and was known as Em man.

Her father was white, but her mother was a black woman married to a man who pimped her out.

Em was raped as a child.

Husno never accepted what happened thought he had been cheated. He was the most unreasonable of man.

Being a black woman, she did not have to be anything but a giver. She was actually a servant. Even her daughter did not ask her opinion because to have opinions one must have money and poor Em did not have any of that.

Gold was loyal to her? No, not at all Gold had position in society her father was a gentleman. Look let me say this being loyal to servants was in the past not being careful.

Nowadays we do not have servants we have keepers. Shop keepers and nursery workers and the keys to the house and all the rest.

Back to this woman who at the turn of the century in the 1900 she was something. Her father was a squire, and her mother was a washerwoman. Whom the squire visited then they had Em.

When he ceased to visit the money run out. The pimp then pimped them all out.

Em tried to adapt but something pure ran in her blood.

The squire took her in. After all a daughter a household loyal thing.

He tried to do the right thing tried to adopt Em but ended destroying her. The wife slept with her and so did his son. In the end when Em was twenty-one, she went on to sell herself at an auction.

Everyone slept with her and she was tired of it she wanted to sleep with someone who was hers. And did away with her freedom. Her husband bought her for half a crown.

She did not love her husband. She just could not and he was coy about her. One moment proud the next belittling her.

As a mother she was useless. Hushed aloof and adding and subtraction. She did and did for a number of years. A driving force on that economy. A class of her own.

She made economies and did all the work and did and made and just was never there for advice and care. She just had too much to do.

Em had no voice. She had no options but to work and keep on working to earn enough respect in the house. No one responded to her. No one tried to understand her plight.

She had no ownership because she a slave a wife. As a woman she was worn out. As a wife she made the man cry.

Used to be beauty now looks like a crow.

"A scarecrow."

When Em was bought for half a crown, she was happy because at last she had somewhere to go. She had been spotless before, but when a slave is bought, they are bought from the nude. The hushed voices as who would be the loser who bought that?

And no respectable woman will do that. Not in the 1800's. This is a story about my grandmother. This is the story about Em the great Em who went down into a little woman and was knifed every time she went out. She became so scared she refused to go out.

Em the wife whose husband did not know she was involved with the man next door. The wife who betrayed her vows because as she told her husband there was no vows.

"I am not really proud to be married to Husno."

"Why?"

"He is so unattractive."

"My daughter takes after him."

And not another word did she speak about it.

The house from being immaculate became a rat-infested hovel.

She never did look as if they did nothing likely a woman who did nothing to make the house a home.

Both partners left the marriage in some dismay. As if their sheets were out and nothing to play with.

"What does that mean?"

I think the marriage was over because on the day after the honeymoon he was seen racing down the road saying he needed to find work in order to feed his bride.

"So why was he saying that."

"Nothing begging your pardon."

"She did all she did for the likes of you."

"Exactitude is the word. To be exact that is the right attitude be grateful."

He appeared not at all grateful.

"I am grateful the food in my belly is due to her."

"All who are gathered round this table sing the praises of hers."

"And his."

No wonder she had an affair with the undertakers.

"Loaf forgive you."

"For what?"

"For speaking like that about a woman who died."

"She died when old."

"How old?"

"About seventy."

"Good age."

"Never was she happy with Husno her husband."

"Why?"

"He was not a kind man."

"Thank you."

"We are not pleased to see you."

I know I am not that important to be sharing stories about my grandmother. But she was a remarkable woman and even more remarkable Mother it was not her fault she had no aptitude for motherhood.

Gold had the aptitude but not the inclination for motherhood.

"What was wrong with Em?"

"She did not have the means to be good and make herself heard. So, she became a massive cry for help that nobody heard."

"A beggar?"

"Nothing of the sort she had a daughter."

"So, what type of a woman?"

"Unloved."

Em who I only know sketchily. Husno bought Em for half a crown. I know I am not much, but great Em was less than half a crown. Her value had diminished along with her good name and circumstances changed.

Her adoption cost her she could not return to her washerwoman mother, and she did not want the good life. So, she went to marry a pauper and make his life rich.

He hated her for that. She had moved on. She had become a lady married to a man whose aunts had a post office. He hated her for her power and her body and her lack of concern for him.

Debtors hated her. They closed the doors in her face but she was patiently waiting for them somewhere else.

"You are talking in riddles. She bought sense into the house sense is hard to come by."

"Yes, my senses were stirred she can cook well."

Mother Zeks and Gold were tightly holding themselves in check. Gold was just going to the bank to sign some more stuff when the story stopped her. A house was saved from being given away to rubble by one pound.

Much has happened since the Crimean war. Em was saved from becoming a prostitute, but her health gave out. She refused to see a doctor, and she wanted to live no more. She did not have enough credit to leave her husband. She was trapped inside a house filled with hate.

The family curse began with her.

"So, you reckoned it all began with Em?"

"Yes."

"Em's husband ran away from the marriage bed the moment he consummated it. He ran to find work with his bare hands he said if necessary because he had to feed the slut his wife."

"Well, what had happened?"

After twenty years they had Gold the child he wanted.

The child he deserved.

"Well, she knew more than he did apparently."

"A little knowledge is good, but Em knew too much so the husband bought the bread and came home and they did try again and again, but he just faked it. The whole thing became a charade of who will last it out."

He then had the brilliant thought to treat her as a servant, and they went on comfortably for thirty-two years.

The lust for kids made them do it often but Em knew how to do the morning after herb, and she did not have many kids only two. One not from her husband he said.

Heartbreaking happiness and sadness and life and sometimes love. There are glimpses when Em would sing in her kitchen making bread or dough and happily looking at her daughter Gold.