Young Mamie and her Jobs
By Fr. Rafael Alonso
It is Mamie herself who speaks about the first jobs she had before falling ill due to an incurable blindness and before her wedding with Francois Treuttens, “One of our cousins was a seamstress in a company which made white dresses that were sent to England. I began to work in the factory in this way."
“ I must say that before that moment I had never liked sewing. In addition, at that time, the skirts and dress made to beautify women never interested me. I worked there because I had to. Ever since the moment I arrived, I made one mistake after another. They did not fire me but the owner’s secretary had pity on me, seeing that I was interested in attending classes, running the errands, going to the post office, to the train station, that is to say, doing everything like a child that runs errands and who does not want to sew. Thanks to this they did not fire me from the factory as I should have been, due to the fact that my clumsy mistakes were serious mistakes.”
In this Mamie’s confession we can clearly see her manual inexperience, which she suffered her entire life. Mamie did not have many practical abilities. Her mind, her intellect was more speculative and, if you permit me, I would say contemplative. She would not daydream or remain in a daze, but rather her intellect would focus more on humanities, linguistic studies, etc. She had above all a great capacity to listen, to understand and to console.
This is why her continual mistakes as a seamstress, when she was fifteen or sixteen years old, was a source of suffering for her. We have known many young people who did have this gift for manual things. Mamie was always able to console them.
In addition, looking back at her life, she did not excuse herself. She was humble and knew how to recognize the good that she had received from others, such as the fact that she was not fired from the job in spite of being worthy of it. She was always incredibly thankful for the fact that she was not fired.
This amiable and understanding secretary had an idea one day. Mamie told us about it in this way, “One day the secretary called my mother and told her that I was inclined more to working in an office. My mother was not very convinced at the beginning but in the end the secretary convinced her. My mother gave me six months to learn accounting and how to work as a secretary. I did so out of fear of having to stay in the factory as a seamstress.
“ I went to work at the Marley brewery, where beer was made. I was the youngest of all that worked there because I was the only sixteen year old girl among all those men. I was greatly respected. I thus worked there for a long time.”
Mamie was never idle or lazy. It was impossible for her mother to pay for any university studies which, on the other hand, at that time was not a normal thing for women. Women had a different role. This did not daunt Mamie. She earned her bread with her own hard work and she supported her family in their ever present economic needs.
It is noteworthy how Mamie was respected by the men with whom she worked. She knew how to behave and how to naturally live her freedom united to that which is good. She did not permit her freedom to go down the path of frivolity, which can be dangerous. On this point, Mamie is an example for every young worker.
