Loisa Hines’
lilies of the Valley
People say Loisa Hines was a white glove women. By that they mean for one thing that she liked to keep house clean. White glove clean. Every once in a while, they say, somebody from church would drop by. Or the boy who hauled those groceries all the way out there. He walked into the kitchen for a drink. People say everybody said it as as clean as clean could be. Even if she wasn’t expecting nobody.
And from family pictures you can see that she was a white glove woman in another way. She’s always the one looking dressed right. Most people looked as if they was wearing costumes. Depending on when the picture was taken, in a plain cotton dress, or later in what must have been a very fashionable gown almost, she looked at the camera as if she knew you’d be looking at the picture. And in every one, in her left hand, almost covered by her right, white fingers pointing up, she held gloves.
But one old man said when he was a little boy, it was the way Miz Hines smelled. “You know how some smells are only right for some times of year? Leaves in the fall, Black powder on the fourth. Turkey, lawns, cabbage cooking. Miz Hines always smelled of lily of the Valleys.” You could hear the capital V.