Nanny&Me

This week’s Storycorner submission comes from…me! I want to tell you a story about the impact that a nanny had on my life. 

When I was 10 months old, my mother put an ad out in the local paper in search of a nanny for me. Amidst all of the applicants was Maryann. Maryann was a strong British woman who had no formal childcare experience, but she had raised two children, and had experience working in recreational programming at nursing homes for the elderly. She must have really shone because my mother (a very intelligent woman) gave her the job. She started right away and mostly looked after me at my parent's house, but I would go to her house sometimes too as she lived in the area.

Maryann instilled in me a lot of the values that I carry with me today. For starters, she had me walk everywhere…and I mean everywhere! At the age of five, I walked from the Beaches of Toronto to the Eaton Centre and for anyone who isn’t from Toronto, let me tell you, that is a long way, like a really really long way for a five year old; about 7 kilometres to be exact. Thanks to Maryann’s encouragement, I really love to walk. Maryann had some strict rules; I wasn’t allowed to drink my lunchtime juice until I had finished eating my meal, I was always expected to do as I was told, and I was taught to be generous with my pleases and thank you's, but Maryann was also the most caring, loving, and generous woman. As a toddler I adoringly called her Mee-anne.

I have so many memories. Along our walks, we would stop into Culture's (a restaurant that was a staple on Queen St for many years) where Maryann would buy me a carrot muffin. We would sit in the big booth in the window and people watch. It was a regular outing to walk up to V.I.C.S (which just recently closed) on Kingston Rd. and I can still picture the hodge podge of nick nacks in the store and smell that wonderful thrift shop smell (you know the one I’m talking about). And at the end of our day, her daughter Su would see me off with terms of endearment like "carrot head", and "cauliflower nose". 

Maryann took wonderful care of me. Over the years, I grew close to her family too. I really got a whole second family out of the deal. She looked after me until I was five years old when she decided to move to Mississauga with her family, but our journey didn’t stop there. My mother had appointed her my Godmother and our relationship continued to flourish; I started going to stay with her and her family in Mississauga, first for a night, then for a weekend, and by the age of ten I was spending half of my Christmas holidays, and several weeks in the summer there, in addition to some weekend visits. Throughout the course of my childhood, my mother was often asked how she felt about how close I was to Maryann and her family (her daughter Su is also my godmother), as if she was supposed to feel jealous. My mother would reply by telling each person who asked that she was thrilled because she loved me, and she wanted me to experience as much love and support in my life as possible. She knew that Maryann and her family provided me with a great deal of love and support, and for that, she was grateful.

At my Grade 7 confirmation, I chose the saint name Anne, after Maryann, and she attended as my sponsor, which is somewhat interesting looking back as she wasn’t catholic…shhhh…don’t tell on me. Maryann had early onset Alzheimer’s and at the time that she attended my confirmation, she had really begun to lose her memory and capacity. I’m not going to go into that part of the story because I would need an entire book (literally…I wrote a book about it for a grade 8 school project), and because I want to keep this story light hearted. I will tell you this though, Maryann passed away when I was 20, but had spent much of the six years leading up to that point in a distant place, the sort of place that Alzheimer’s takes you.

What I got out of having Maryann in my life is far more than I can ever put into words. If you’re lucky in life, then you can look back on your childhood and feel gratitude for those people who were pillars in your life; the people who built up your character, shared with you their knowledge, and believed in you. I was very fortunate to have several of these pillars in my life, and Maryann was one of them. The things that she taught me, the values that she instilled in me, and the sense of love and security that she bestowed upon me changed my life forever, and all because she answered a simple ad in a newspaper. I can still hear her words, in her British accent, clear as day, "I love you Jenn" and for this I am grateful.