Re-Post: Tea For Ms. Ruby First posted January 2005

Down Cashua Drive, where it meets Second Loop Road, sits a house. This corner intrigued me as a child. In the yard there were goats, chickens, and a cawing rooster. The house sat a little back from the main road barely visible, surrounded by trees and an unruly yard. I used to think the house was haunted with its dark windows and shadows. Sometimes I would see a car in the covered driveway and sometimes a woman. Actually, I remember seeing a woman only once. Someone once told me, I don't remember who, that Ms. Ruby lived there in that quiet, sad looking house. I didn't know who Ms. Ruby was. I was told she was the richest woman in Florence on account that she was once a brothel owner. Not just any brothel owner but that she had had rich powerful men as customers and had dirt on all of them. Ms. Ruby was wealthy not only for her once flourishing business, but for her bought silence. Now, I didn't know nor did I care about all that, but I couldn't figure out why the richest woman in Florence would let animals and weeds run wild in her yard. When mama would drive by her house I would wondered if she was lonely and try to imagine what it looked like inside. That maybe inside it was beautiful, with lace curtains, shiny table tops and crystal chandeliers. Maybe the outside of her home was a middle finger to the city of Florence. She intrigued me.

She intrigues me. Driving down Second Loop road one day I noticed Ms. Ruby's house on the corner where it intersects with Cashua. I have been gone for almost 16 years. Things have changed and stayed the same in this small town. Now her intersection is very busy. And it is HER intersection. A Walgreens is across from Ms. Ruby's place with a Gas station/SUBAY combo caddy corner. I would not have noticed her house if it hadn't been for the huge goose standing on the corner watching the traffic go by. I imagined the other drivers were thinking the same as me, "Please don't let that bird walk out into the street" but maybe they weren't laughing as I was. There are fewer trees now. I can see a mismatched painted house, pink on the Second Loop side. It seems that the animal population has persisted and it got me to thinking about Ms. Ruby again. She stayed in my mind at work. I gathered from my co-workers that she owns the properties where the Walgreens and the
Gas station/SUBWAY sit. The city won't do anything about the animals or disheveled property because of all the secrets she knows.

Yes, Ms. Ruby's middle finger to the small world called Florence. She intrigues me because she is a Southern woman who broke all stereotypes. She hasn't succumbed to the status quo. She has lived in a shroud of mystery for decades and people slow down for her animals.

My mama has run into her a few times at the gas station. She says Ms. Ruby is a kind woman with a beautiful smile, silver white hair that she keeps pulled back and beautiful clear eyes. The kind of eyes that are aware of many things and are at peace. She has a soft, gentle Southern accented voice. Mama could see that the now elderly woman was once quite gorgeous in her day. I wanted to know more. I was so curious about this woman who has intrigued me most of my life. To my inquires mama suggested going to visit her. Well, maybe I'll do that. And bring some tea.