[dropcap]M[/dropcap]alinda Darrah and Jane Yoho are two strong women. They are my grandma Maxine’s mom and mother.
While Malinda was recovering from the birth of her daughter Geraldine, her husband Bryan went about and got another woman pregnant. Bryan came home as soon as he found out and told his wife. When he told Malinda that Jane was pregnant, Malinda looked at him and told him to have her move in so they could care for her. She made something very clear to Bryan. Living with her, their young child, and a pregnant mistress was punishment enough.
As a child, I was often confused about my Grandmother Maxine’s family. One thing that I got most corrected on was that Malinda was her mom.
She was not the biological mother of Maxine but she was her mom. She breastfed and raised Maxine as her own daughter. Malinda was the woman that my father called grandma when he would tell me fond stories of her and her homemade egg noodles. Dad would get on me if I dared to call anyone but Malinda his grandma. I wish I had gotten to know her. She sounded like a very special woman, supporting Maxine later in life as she went to stay with the McIntyre family so that Maxine could meet her brother Kenneth and later her other half-siblings mothered by Jane Yoho. Malinda stepped up again when her daughter Geraldine wanted to marry Jane Yoho’s brother and supported the marriage fully.
How many women would not only support one daughter going to stay with her other biological family but then support her other daughter marrying the brother of her husband’s former mistress? Malinda was remarkable.
In Malinda’s will, she inserted in her own handwriting the full names of her daughters, writing both Maxine and Geraldine. Maxine was even listed the same way Aunt Geraldine was in their moms’ obituary.
Her obituary lists Malinda as having three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. These numbers include both biological and step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The best words I can think of to summarize her character would be gracious and loving.
I do not want anyone to think that my branch of the family has any ill at all to Jane Yoho. That is not the case. There is just a special bond that comes between a woman and the child she raises and loves. I have never really heard a bad thing about Jane. I imagine she must have had as much love in her heart as Malinda had. She loved Grandma Maxine so much that she let Bryan raise her, knowing that in that action she was giving her daughter something she could not give at that time of her life. A home with two loving parents.