By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
Yesterday (part 1 here), I began the story of how—in addition to learning basic biographical facts—I also first started to “hear” the voice of my great grandmother’s sister, my great Aunt Mary Leonard.
In 1882 at age 17, Mary emigrated from Ireland to Vermont and took a job caring for the home (dubbed “Springside”) and the young family of Dr. Ezra Brainerd, a scholar and the president of Middlebury College during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Dr. Brainerd’s daughter Alice, nicknamed Babbie, wrote about her family life in a 1951 book called Four Ducks on a Pond. Babbie featured Mary Leonard in many of the short stories, all told with “affectionate remembrance.” In Babbie’s short stories, I first “heard” my Aunt Mary’s voice.
Babbie’s stories reveal that Mary was an excellent cook. The household seemed to salivate when Mary rang a big bell out the front door to announce dinner was ready. On baking day, Babbie and the other Brainerd children waited eagerly for scraps that fell from Mary’s knife as she pared pie crusts in the pantry. Mary prepared bulging picnic baskets for family trips, including one adventure when the family took apples to the cider mill at harvest time. Babbie also recalled picking currants for Mary’s delicious jelly.
Although Babbie wrote that Mary was “at that time what Middlebury termed our ‘domestic,’” she also remembered Mary as a part of the family. Mary offered solace when the young Brainerds were ill, gave friendship when the children got into mischief, and sometimes helped them work their way out of trouble. And if any of the children missed a family meal due to some kind of misbehavior or unfortunate circumstance, a patient Mary usually was waiting for them in the kitchen with these comforting words: “I have saved your supper for yez in the top of the stove.”
Babbie’s stories also capture the lilting lyrics of Mary’s Irish brogue. At night, the children were not tucked in, instead according to Mary they were “abed and asleep.” A household item was not merely large in Mary’s eyes, instead it was “a thumpin’ big bowl and pitcher!” Once when Babbie got sick after drinking what she called “night milk,” Mary immediately asked, “Where did yez get that milk Babbie?” Mary then exclaimed, “Blessed Saints in Heaven” on learning what Babbie had drunk: “‘Tis my bowl of milk with the yeast in it that the child got hold of!”
One also cannot miss the Irish-ness in Mary’s announcement of a visitor: “He asked if ye would be lettin’ him come up to Mr. Brainerd’s study to pick out a book that he is wanting before he preaches his sermon this morning.” Similarly, noting the noise and fuss of a tantrum thrown once by Babbie’s sister, Mary remarked how “it’s a wonder the elders did not hear it in Quebec!”
Babbie writes how Mary often had “an amused twinkle in her Irish eyes” and also had a “funny habit of laughing behind her face,” which I think means Mary was good at keeping a straight face even when she thought something was funny. According to Babbie, however, such restraint was not always the case.
One time a rather prissy spinster babysitter was watching the children for several days while the Brainerd parents were away. The sitter was not really up to the task of managing so many young children. Mary patiently tried to help, but had her hands full with cooking and cleaning. When the young Brainerd son lost track of his horned toad, the sitter was apoplectic. For years afterwards, Mary would tell—“with tears rolling down her cheeks from laughter”—of the sitter’s frantic and terrified search for the reptilian beast on the loose in the house.
Mary Leonard remained part of Brainerd family lore long after her departure and death. In a 1971 feature about the Brainerds, one Middlebury College magazine explained, “From the kitchen, Ireland-born Mary Leonard ran the house for many years. Giving her earnings regularly to Mr. Brainerd for banking, she and her sister in Burlington brought over, one by one, each of their brothers and sisters.”
After Mary’s death in 1951, the Burlington Free Press wrote: “As a young woman she worked in the home of Pres. and Mrs. Ezra Brainerd, and it was with their encouragement that she brought the rest of the family to Middlebury from Ireland.” Another publication explains how when her younger brother Thomas first arrived in America, Mary said to Dr. Brainerd: “Tom’s here. What shall we do with him?” The scholar asked, “Is he good at books?” Mary said, “Yes.” Dr. Brainerd responded, “Well let’s put him in school, then!”
They did. It was an inspired idea, one that not only changed Thomas’ life, but also revealed the strongest and most enduring aspects of Mary Leonard’s own quiet voice.
(Part 3 tomorrow, discovering Mary Leonard’s steadfast, strong, quiet voice.)
*Mike O’Brien (author website here) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings (found here), about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah—and about his family’s roots in Burlington, Vermont—was published by Paraclete Press (more information here) in August 2021.
