The Story of Rosemary Buttons. Gregory J. McKenzie
Introduction
There was much activity as Mrs Buttons was handed her new baby daughter. She looked at the little face all squeezed up in its firstssleep and said in a soft tone of voice,
"Well Mr. Buttons, what shall we call this one? We have used your father and my father for the names of our two sons. But we only have one female baby. The doctors say I am too old to have another child. How then can we please both our mothers? If one gets the first name and the other the second we will start a war of words."
Mr. Buttons has just recovered from the news that he had a daughter. He could not think of family politics at a time like this, so he responded in kind with,
"What? Who comes first? Does it matter?"
His wife smilesdher tolerant smile before answering him in a kindly tone of voice,
"Of course it matters.... Ah, I have it ,we will call her ROSEMARY.... Now I know that may not stop the order of their two names and your Mum will insist on calling her MARYROSE, but it is an answer for now."
Ready to agree to anything so he could finally get some sleep, Mr. Buttons says in a final tone of voice,
"Rosemary it is then. I name you Rosemary Buttons, my little daughter. Let no one call you different."
Mrs. Buttons smiled at her baby and said in a loving tone of voice,
"My Rosemary, your life has just started and you are already destined to be a peacemaker. So let it be for your whole life. This is my blessing on you my daughter."
The two adults stared at their baby child both thinking of the possibilities that stretched out into her future.
Slowly both fell asleep next to this new bundle of joy.
Family
Rosemary Buttons was not yet one when her mother got sick. Mr. Buttons was in a desperate position. He had to work to pay the rent but now there were two boys under the age of ten and one baby girl to look after. Desperate he called on his mother and his mother-in-law. They both arrived determined to take charge. But two strong minded women rarely give ground in such a demarcation dispute. They began to negotiate terms with excessive politeness. Mr. Buttons knew that this was a bad sign but was powerless to change anything. First Grandma Rose, who was Mr. Buttons mother, said,
"Well Mary, I imagine you will be wanting to get back to your husband now that you see I have everything under control?"
Mr. Buttons knew that tone of voice as one his mother employed when she would brook no argument. Holding his breath he awaited the response from his mother-in-law. She came back in the tone of voice that implied butter would not melt in her mouth. Her words were carefully chosen and meticulously aimed at cutting the ground from under her rival's feet. She said in a sickly sweet way.
"Rose I would not think of abandoning my grandchildren in this hour of need. You have so many responsibilities already, it was brave of you to come here to offer your services. But I won't hear of you wearing yourself out, when I am so strong and able to cope with this disaster. None of us are getting any younger are we now?'
Suddenly Mr. Buttons felt the urge to yell,
"INCOMING!"
but restrained himself just in time to hear his mother fire back this overly polite rejoinder,
"Well of course I am much younger than you, so can do more than one thing at a time. No we simply cannot impose on you a minute longer. I am sure my husband and I can manage OUR grandchildren well enough to let OUR son keep working at his job."
You could almost see the steam rise out of his mother-in-law's ears, thought Mr. Buttons. Much as he was enjoying this 'tennis match' of polite civility he knew that he had to intervene. They had both forgotten about his hospital visits. So he said in a forthright tone of voice,
"Now listen you two, I need both of you to help. Its not just babysitting my kids whilst I am at work. I have to visit Mrs. Buttons ..not you Mum but my the other Mrs. Buttons...in hospital twice a day. Once early in the morning before I go to work and then after work in the evenings. That means someone has to get the boys up and dressed for school then take them to their school bus stop. At the same time Rosemary has to be bathed and given her breakfast. Unless you are twins neither of you can be in two places at the same time. In the evening there is the boys bath time. That will be tough enough but then its dinner for the boys and Rosemary. Again no one person can do that alone....Yes Mum, but you know that Dad goes to sleep at five in the afternoon. No it will take the both of you to cover all that, even before we get to the lunches every day, the house cleaning and the nappy changes. Then there are the bottles to prepare for Rosemary. Plus the grocery shopping. Be sensible you need to work together to do all that without killing yourselves."
Knowing that he had probably said too much Mr. Buttons stopped talking and waited for the explosions.
Just then Rosemary cried in a heart piercing way. Suddenly the two women in the room remembered that their granddaughter was alone and not likely to see her Mum for a long period of time. That cry destroyed their stubborn defenses. Suddenly they saw the need to help despite their pride.
His mother was the first to break the awkard silence. In a reluctantly compliant tone of voice she said,
"Well if you put it that way, I suppose I could be persuaded to share the burden until your wife is better."
Not to be outdone in the common sense stakes, his mother-in-law quickly chipped in with,
"Certainly I will be there to do my share. My daughter needs time in hospital and I will not let her down. We can take shifts to get all those chores done in proper order."
His mother was not going to be shown up as ungenerous, so she said in a matter of fact tone of voice,
"Excellent suggestion Mary. I will take the morning shift if that is okay with you and your husband."
Never before had Mr. Buttons heard his mother-in-law sound so reasonable than when she replied in a calm tone of voice,
"Exceptionally good of you Rose. I will be back at just after midday to begin my shift."
Not wanting to disturb this rare moment of family harmony in any way Mr. Buttons slipped out of the room to give Rosemary a big kiss. He was in no doubt that it was her plaintive crying that had broken the hard hearts of those two proud women.
Endings
Eventually Mrs. Buttons recovered from her illness. Back home with her boys who would not stop hugging their Mum and her baby, she was happy. But when her husband told her how BOTH her mother AND her mother-in-law worked together to keep her family going...well she was flabbergasted. Her mum was not the easiest woman to get along with. Even though Mrs. Buttons loved her deeply, she knew this from past experiences. Like the time her mum had told off the postman for not delivering her mail on time, or that time she marched into the local butcher shop to tell off the butcher about what she called 'fake steak'.
That her mother-in-law also co-operated so peacefully totally