Lady in Black

Momma has so many stories about folks she knew that sometimes it is hard to keep the names straight.  But this tale, well it was unique and it lingers in my mind, begging to be told again.

People said, they did, that Tillie was a simple soul.  But not so simple that she couldn’t entertain the Born Again Bible Thumpers with her innocent but outrageous acts. She arrived late in life to devout parents, who like Abraham and Sarah, longed for an offspring.  The prayers were answered and they were delivered, not Isaac, but Tillie who would be their steadfast companion until they joined their fellow saints in the sky.

Tillie always wore black.  When she went to the Chapel on Sundays, she would be decked out in a black dress, with black shoes and a black hat covering her head. Monday to Saturday she wore a black skirt, an off white blouse and a black sweater or shawl with, you guessed it, a black shoes and a black scarf covering her head.  It did not matter if it was 100 degrees in the shade, and she was off to the beach, like a soldier, she wore the same colour outfit everyday as if it were her uniform, with medals for courage, on her lapel.

In ‘the day,’ if you lived in the country, there were no Wal-Mart and no eBay. You waited with bated breath for the Sears or Eaton catalogues  to arrive to see the latest fashions and day-dream about how fetching you would look in a certain cutting edge outfit that no one else in your town  would admit to even like.  Of course, Tillie only dressed in black so it wasn’t the fashions that stirred her heart.  No, it was the men that were for sale.  Tillie would study the catalogue and having Scottish blood, would look for the best looking bargain man and order him.  Then she would wait in breathless anticipation for the arrival of her order……but instead of the man she longed for, she was sent the suit he had been wearing.  Year after year, Tillie would order a man and got a suit which her parents Returned to Sender.  Should’t there be a law against false advertising?

There was another obsession that Tillie had, that amused and bemused the locals.  Since the land her parents owned was waterfront property, she would explore the shoreline endlessly.  One day she found a deep carved in bathtub-like rock formation that would fill with water in high tide.  Tillie’s bathtub was born.  She would parade as many locals as she could entice down to the beach to share her bathtub.  The only rule was you had to keep your day clothes on, no swimsuits allowed.  After all, she got out of her bathtub, soaking wet in her Monday to Saturday uniform so her guests would do likewise or not share the privilege of entering.  Since hot tubs have become so popular, do you think maybe Tillie was ahead of the Bell Curve?

On a grim, gray day Tillie was catapulted to her Greater Reward, where you get the man and the suit, the way we understand it.  The locals swear her spirit rests at Tillie’s bathtub.  They will be standing, looking in the water in the bathtub and it will ripple invitingly, beckoning you to step in.  And sometimes, as the sun sets and dusk’s shadows settle over the night, some locals swear they see Tillie, heading down the beach for a late dip in her bathtub.  But like a light that grows dimmer even as it advances towards you, look again and Tillie is Gone, Baby,Gone!

Momma took me to Tillie’s bathtub once and I am sure that the movement of water was an invitation of sorts for me to tell the world we can not rule out possibilities based on a scientific data alone.  We must be ready, willing and open to receive……..