Mary Thoma
My moms best friend
In 1966 my mom who was 31, single and raising me, my sister and brother moved us into this one bedroom apartment in this huge three story red brick house on the bottom corner of Academy Ave in the Price Hill area of Cincinnati, Ohio. We lived on the first floor, the Campbell's an older couple lived on the second floor with their German Shepherd dog Bullet.and their 40 year old daughter, Mary lived on the third floor. Mr Campbell was a retired police officer, hence the dog was named Bullet Mrs Campbell was a petite woman of about 5 foot tall, so it comes to a surprise when you meet Mary. Mary was about 6 feet tall, wore glasses with super thick lenses, so they made her eyes look big. Matter of fact all of her physical features were big. She had long hair that must have been dark at one time because she had quite a bit of grey in it. But she always wore it in a bun. And one thing you couldn't miss was the dent in her forehead. You could always hear Mary coming because she loved to chew gum and when she chewed it air would get under her tongue and it would make a cracking sound. I remember her so well because she quickly because she became one of my moms best friends. I was 8 when I first met her and she would keep an eye on me before and after school for my mom. I have some wonderful memories with Mary. One up. morning I wasn't getting out of bed and I remember peaking my eyes open and there was Mary standing over me with the ice water pitcher , holding it over me and the water was right at the edge. And I yelled I'm up, I'm up. I loved friday night because Maryand her mom would go to Bingo at the Shriners hall and sometimes I got to go with them. Mary bought me my first Bingo card for a dime, and I won the very first game that night. Mary thought I was wrong until she looked at my card and she yelled BINGO and waved the card. After bingo they would take me to the little store near by and get me a surprise pack. It always made me happy. And one day I asked her about the hole in her forehead and she told me when she was much younger she was a small lady, but her body started growing really fast, her husband left her because of it. And they found that her pituitary glad wasn't working right and it made her grow, and the doctors had to drill a hole and move her brain to remove it. And that she was the first person to ever survive that surgery, and she was in the medical books. Later something else happened to her, I don't know what it was but she had skin grafts. For 6 years she was in my life and was lucky to have known her. I loved her so much and miss her.
