by Joe Reinschmidt
Anna holding Mary Lou at the front porch of the farm house on Ogden Parma Townline Road. “Strangely,” writer Joe Reinschmidt says, “we have a cat that looks exactly like that right now.”Back in my grammer (elementary) school days, one of my favorite things to do on a rainy or cold day was to look through pictures my parents kept in an old album or in various envelopes in the parlor desk drawer. On one such occassion I came across a photo of my mother, Anna, holding a two year old girl that I couldn’t recall ever having seen in real life. Curious, I asked who she was. “Mary Lou” was the answer and she had lived here before I was born.
Eventually, though not necessarily at that moment, after more questions, I was told more about that little girl. It seems there was a high school aged boy and girl in the community who let their love get the best of them and a child was created. Both sets of parents were upset with the circumstances but the young folks insisted this was true love. All parties involved mutually agreed that the child would be born and eventually the young couple would marry – but not without finishing their education. Special school programs for unwed mothers didn’t exist at that time.
No doubt the young lady was sent away to be “live in” help for an aging relative, until the child arrived. During that time the parents searched for a suitable home where the baby would be cared for until the young lovers finished school, and were in a position to get married. Anna and Joe were approached about this possibility and they accepted the offer that was made to them. Perhaps the parents knew about the problems Anna had had with failed pregnancies and that she and Joe indeed wanted children. Obviously they felt secure in entrusting their offspring to Anna and Joe for a few years.
So it was that Mary Lou became a part of the Reinschnmidt household, and there probably could not have been a better place for her. I’m sure Anna loved and cared for her as much as she would have for one of her own. The story had a happy ending for indeed when Mary Lou was about four her parents, having finished school, married and she became part of their family. It must have been a joyful time for them and the grandparents, but I always wondered how Anna and Joe felt after years of total caring for this child to suddenly have her taken away even though that was as planned and that was where she belonged.
I don’t know if they visited or ever saw her and the family after that.
All I ever knew, was that her name was Mary Lou.
