Maude by Donna Foley Mabry Ch. 1-13

Maude by Donna Foley Mabry

Pages: 0-124

Chapter one: Nola Maude Clayborn was born in 1892 in Perkinsville, Tennessee. She lived in a small town where everyone had their own farms and gardens that they lived off of. In looks, she took after her father, Charles Eugene Clayborn. She had straight brown hair and brown eyes. Her sister, Helen, took after their mother, Faith. They were fair with blue eyes and hair of a pale blonde shade. Helen was the “pretty” one. Their mother payed more attention on Helen than she did on Maude. Their dad ran a livery stable across the street from their house.

April of 1900 Helen was eighteen when she got married. Maude didn’t mind her getting married and moving out. Maude started getting attention from their mom. She started molding her into a fit wife for a man. The summer of 1901, Maude was eight and Helen was 7 months pregnant. One day while Maude was at Helen’s house, there was a house fire back at her house. Both of their parents died. Later that day Helen gave birth to her baby boy but he did not make it. He died. Helen was left with a lot of blood lost and had to rest for a few weeks.

Chapter two: Maude went to the funerals. She had to learn how to take care of her sister until she was back to good health. After a while she started going to school again. She starts becoming good friends with her crush James Connor. Helen keeps trying to have a baby at least once a year, but always ends up having a miscarriage 2 to 3 months in the pregnancy. Finally Helen passes 3 months in a pregnancy giving them hope that she’ll be able to have another baby soon. The day comes and Helen has her baby. The doctor didn’t make it in time so Maude had to help Helen give birth. The baby came out alive and healthy.

Chapter three: Maude is now in the ninth grade. Helen and her husband Tommy announce that they agreed for Maude and James to get married. They wait for Maude to finish her year of school before they get married. Throughout the last weeks of school everyone starts to get things ready for the wedding. Tommy makes a house for them to live in and the move in the night of their wedding.

Chapter four: James has the hopes of becoming a professional baseball player. It’s now 106 and another league, the American, had been formed to compete with the National. Maude starts to throw up every morning. She soon learns that she’s pregnant. Her stomach begins to grow. James made a crib for the baby.

Chapter five: It’s almost spring and Maude begins to have labor pains. In the middle of the night Maude wakes James up to go get the doctor. She has her baby girl soon after the doctor comes in. The next morning James’s mother comes to help Maude with the baby. They decided to name her Lulu Helen Connor.

Chapter six: Soon enough Maude and her baby started going out more. She would always bring her baby with her to Helen’s house and they would sit on the porch together and watch their kids.

Chapter seven: Maude turned sixteen in the summer of 1908. Lulu is one year old and learning how to walk. James and his dad started building another room in the cabin for the baby to have her own room. Sometimes Maude would take Lulu to the baseball games where James would be playing against other teams from other towns. Maude describes Lulu as a beautiful little girl with a pink complexion, long fingers, and rosy cheeks. Her hair formed soft curls around her neck, and big round blues eyes just like her father. One Monday afternoon, James comes in with mail in his hands. He said “It’s from the St. Louis Browns, Maude, they’re sending a man down here to see us play. We beat every team we played so far this year, and they want to take a look at us. This could be it for me. If I can hit it like I’ve been doing, maybe they’ll sign me up to play professional.” Maude was afraid of him being away from home all the time, but she was happy that James dream could be coming true. Maude and the rest of the family went to the field to watch James play. James got with the ball on his left temple resulting in a loud crack. He falls to the ground not moving.

Chapter eight: James died from the accident at the baseball game. James’s mom took the news really bad. Everyone went to the funeral to pay their respects. She was only a few months past her sixteenth birthday and she had already been an orphan, a wife, and a mother. Now she was also a widow.

Chapter nine: Maude is trying to find out what to do. She’s trying to find out how she’s going to