A Tribute To Alice
Alice Rachael Nelson was born May 3rd 1926. She was the second daughter of Graham and Dianne Nelson, she had an older sister named Myrtle Diane and when she turned four, she got another sister. They named this baby girl Emily Elizabeth. When she was eight, she won a blue ribbon on field day at school. It was first place in the rope jumping contest. When she was ten, she almost won an election for the class treasurer, but she got into a fight with another little girl and lost.
When she got in high school, she became a cheerleader. She was the head cheerleader in the twelfth grade. She wore braces from her freshman year until her junior year in school.. She also took culinary art and home economics . She graduated with a 4.0. She was everyone's favorite classmate. She went to college to study child care and got a job in a day care when she was twenty two.
She worked in the same place until 1959. Then she was reading the newspaper one morning and saw an ad that a young family with two little boys ages six and four needed a housekeeper. The mother was expecting her third child in May of 1960. Alice went to the house and the door opened and a cute little boy grinned and looked up at her.
"Hello! My name is Peter Brady, what's yours?"
"Well hello Peter, my name is Alice and I'm here to see your mommy."
A woman came to the door. She had brown hair and brown eyes, she smiled warmly at Alice and shook her hand.
"Good morning Alice! My name is Susan Brady. I'm looking for a housekeeper, come on in and we'll get to know each other."
After talking for about twenty minutes, Alice gave Susan her references. After Alice talked to little Peter, who looked just like his mother, Susan finally told her.
"Alice, I am happy to tell you that you are hired! You may move in today if you'd like to."
Alice smiled warmly and shook Susan's hand. That night, she also met Greg, a handsome little fellow of six, and Michael Brady, he was a very handsome man, with brown hair and sky- blue eyes, he was twenty-eight and was an architect for The James Matthews Engineering Company. Greg was the spit and image of his dad. After discussing the food that they liked, Alice cooked for the first meal to serve her new employers, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans and an apple pie for dessert. Greg later told Alice
"My mom cooks good Alice, but I kind of like your cooking just as good,"
"Why thank you Greg."
By the week's end, Alice was loving this family, and they loved her just as well. One evening, Mike, as Susan called him, entered the house with something behind his back, it was for the whole family he told them. He brought the object in his hand forward and to the boys surprise, It was a puppy, a shaggy brown and white puppy. They both laughed joyfully at the cute puppy with the sweet smelling breath.
"Well family, you too Alice, what are we going to name him?
"Buddy.!
"Scrappy"
"Jake"
"No! Tiger! I like Tiger daddy. I want to call him Tiger."
Peter piped in, that was going to be his name. So Tiger was a new member of the family. He cried his first night, but Alice settled that by putting the puppy in her bed. He was taken out every few hours to do his housebreaking and by the time the new baby was to arrive, he was housebroken. Susan went to the hospital May 31st . At 9:22 PM a baby boy was brought to the window for his father's viewing. He was a healthy baby, weighing six pounds, twelve ounces and was nineteen inches long.
They named the baby Robert Michael Brady. He was baptized at church at the age of six weeks and didn't even cry when the minister put the holy water on his head. Mike's brother Frank and his wife Rachel were the baby's Godparents. As time went on, they family was happy and everyone was healthy, until Bobby, as the family called him was two. Susan began getting severe headaches all the time and one evening, her head hurt so severely that Mike took her to the hospital.
The doctor quickly rushed Susan into the operating room, as Mike waited and paced the corridors. A few minutes after ten, the doctor came out of the operating room, his face looking gravely told Mike.
"Mister Brady, I did all I could, but you wife had an aneurysm . I'm told that when someone dies, their hearing goes last of all, so I know your wife will hear you if you go and tell her something."
Sobbing, Mike went into the room and saw Susan lying there and he held her hand and told her
"I love you darling! I'm going to miss you so badly, and so will Greg, Peter, Bobby and Alice."
The funeral was three days later and the friends and family brought food and helped with the boys for a while. Then they were left alone. Tiger even mourned Susan's passing, he wandered around the house whimpering and whining. Bobby cried for his Mommy, and so did Greg and Peter. Alice cried too. But in private, and so did Mike. One day, Bobby innocently asked Alice
"Do you love my daddy Alice?"
"Why sure I do, I love him and all of you boys, why do you ask me that?"
"Because I hear daddy cry at night some times and I want to know maybe you and daddy could get married and then you could be our new mommy."
"Oh Bobby, I love you so much, but daddy loved mommy and he just likes me, he wouldn't want to marry me, we'll just be really good friends okay?"
"Okay Alice. I'll go watch cartoons now."
The other boys were lonely without Susan too. Greg cried because they were having a mother and student picnic at school and Alice seeing he was so upset offered to take him and baked one of her apple pies. Greg was delighted and bragged to everyone about Alice, even though she wasn't his mom, she was still the best cook in the world. When Peter began school a year later, His teacher explained to the class bout him not having a mommy. The children treated Peter kindly.
A year later, Mike turned thirty-three years old and they all went to a restaurant to celebrate his birthday. As their food arrived another family walked past them, a blond woman and three little girls, who were also blond. They sat at the table in front of them and as their food was ordered, the woman told the waiter.
"Today is my daughter Jan's sixth birthday and I'm letting her order what she wants."
"May I have a hamburger and some fries please."
The middle daughter told the waiter, as he wrote the order down, and the woman ordered the baby's meal after the oldest daughter ordered her meal. The waiter walked away and after the family got their meal. Mike asked the waiter to come to his table.
"Hi. Do you have a cake you could bring out for the child at the next table? I heard her mother call her Jan so put Happy Birthday Jan on it please. I'll pay for the cake."
"Yes sir, the name Jan, I'll be back with the cake right before they finish their meals."
As they were finishing their food and so was the woman and the three little girls, the waiter brought the cake out and Mike began
"Happy Birthday to you-'
And everyone else sang too.
"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Jan, happy birthday to you!"
The little girl smiled and blew out the candle on the cake. The woman, named Carol Martin was delighted that Mike gave them a cake for her daughter, she gave them a piece of the cake too and before they left, Mike invited Carol to his house. They soon began dating and after about a year, they became engaged. Carol was thirty nine and was a widow, her husband Bill was killed in a car accident when her youngest daughter Cindy was just a year old, a woman went the wrong way onto the freeway and crashed head on into Bill's car, she survived but he died on the operating table, leaving her a young widow with three fatherless daughters, Jan was three and Marcia was five.
Carol had to move in with her parents and the girls all shared a bedroom there. Carol worked at a dentist office. The two of them were engaged for the next two years. They married and all moved into a brand new house. Alice began to love her new Mrs. Brady and her girls as much as she loved her Mr. Brady and his sons. They had their arguments and the boys and the girls fought sometimes, but they all loved each other. Both Mike and Carol adopted each others children so the boys called her mom and the girls called him dad.
When the family went on vacation, Alice also went as a member of the family. She loved The Grand Canyon but was afraid of the ride down the steep canyon with the mule. And they also went to Hawaii, Alice sprained her back trying to hula, but it got better. Then Mike got to help design an amusement park so the family got to go with him to Cincinnati Ohio. Alice was just like a child and rode almost all the rides, including a large roller coaster, with the exception of Mike, who got sick on them.
One afternoon Greg and Peter, who were fifteen and seventeen at the time were tossing a Frisbee around the living room, one of the boys accidentally tossed it and it went into dad's den and hit Mom's antique lamp, breaking it. Alive suggested they try to glue it back together since it cracked in the middle. They took it into their room and glued the lamp, It was supposed to dry for forty-eight hours and they carefully took it back downstairs.
Carol came home from shopping and went into Mike's den to put some House Beautiful magazines on the coffee table, she noticed the crack and went to the lamp and picked it up. The lamp broke apart again.
"OH, OH NO! OH ALICE!"
Knowing what Carol spotted, Alice feigned innocence and told her she didn't come into the room that day and didn't know if any of the children had either.
A very angry Carol told her
"Alice, I want the truth! Who did it, when did it happen and why didn't they tell me!"
That evening, the boys were angry at her, she tried to tell them their mom demanded that she tell her. A few days later. Carol was in the family room, the stereo was on, Carol asked Alice who played the stereo.
"Marcia, she must have played that new album about ten times yesterday."
That afternoon, as Alice brought clean sheets to the girls room Marcia accused Alice of squealing on her and she couldn't use the stereo for a week. Alice told her that she had no idea why Carol asked her about the stereo. The next day, which was Saturday, Bobby and Cindy came into the kitchen to tell Alice they had been invited to swim at a neighbors home, they had their robes on and Alice asked Bobby if he had his new swim trunks on and she opened up his robe and saw he was completely naked.
"OOPS! You're now wearing your swim suit, you're wearing your birthday suit."
She opened Cindy's robe and saw she was naked as the day she was born also.
"Who are these people, Adam and Eve? I know your parents will not let you swim an a X rated pool, so get yourselves upstairs and put your swimsuits on NOW!"
They tried to argue but Alice told them to listen to her. Monday after school, the children barely spoke to Alice and as she was taking the wet wash outside to fry on the clothes line, she overheard Bobby and Cindy talking about how Alice wasn't their friend anymore.
"Remember how we all used to love her?"
Bobby asked Cindy. Alice was heartbroken. That evening, she was in tears at her friend Kay's apartment, she told her that she needed to leave the Brady home. Kay told her that she had done the worst thing, getting too emotionally involved with the family. That it can break your heart and she knew from experience. Alice sobbed and Kaye just let her cry. After she walked back to the Brady house she went into her room and Carol could hear her sobbing softly. The next morning, she cooked up a story about a woman that worked for her Uncle Winston at a dress shop that eloped and left him without any help. She was leaving that afternoon for Seattle Washington.
"Oh Alice! The children will be heartbroken. Can't you stay until they arrive home from school?"
After Alice told her no she went into her room to pack, carol tearfully told her goodbye as a taxi drove her away. Kay temporarily took over the housekeeping and Alice stayed with her and found a job in a diner as a waitress. One evening as Kay was about to go home for the evening, she overheard Marcia and Greg ask Carol why Alice really left. After they told her they had give Alice the cold shoulder she angrily told them that she asked Alice about the stereo and the lamp. They told her that Alice told them the truth about it, but they didn't believe her. Carol angrily told them that they could never bring Alice back and she wouldn't blame her for leaving.
"But mom, we all want her back!"
Marcia told her, They left the family room and Kay stood in the kitchen and Marcia and Greg told her they liked her too, but she knew they really loved and missed Alice. The next afternoon, Kay told the children that Alice was back in town and was working at a diner called The Golden Spoon on Fourth and Oak. The next afternoon, all six of them went to the diner after school. Alice saw them and was delighted. As they tried to order what they wanted, Alice told Peter he was going to order a plain donut, and Marcia and Cindy were going to have a fruit cup. Jan squinted because she wasn't wearing her glasses as she was supposed to do for reading. She developed astigmatism at the age of thirteen and had to wear glasses all the time at first, but later on just for reading.
"Now Jan, when you read you wear your glasses."
The children all told Alice they were sorry for hurting her feelings and begged her to come back home to live with them again. Alice told the boss that she was leaving for her old job. The children put on the kitchen blackboard WELCOME HOME ALICE. Carol told her that Kay was just fine but that was the worst week they had ever spent. Mike was away in Alaska for a month and knew nothing about the drama.
Alice had dated a man named Sam, who owned a butcher shop. Sam was a nice looking man with brown hair and blue eyes. He hired Greg one summer and when Greg left for college, let Peter work there a summer also. After all the children were married, Sam asked Alice to marry him, she accepted and they married. They were happily married and as the Brady children were all married she and Sam attended their weddings and as they had children, she attended their baptisms. Soon after Bobby and his wife Robin's baby girl Brooke was born, Mike Brady died. He got cancer. Then to Alice's horror, Sam died from pneumonia. Carol asked her to move back in the Brady home and she and Carol would take care of one another. Alice moved into the girls old bedroom
As the years went by. The children were having their own children, then Greg and Nora had grandchildren, then Marcia and her husband and Jan and her husband had grandchildren. Alice was just as happy as ever, They came all the time, the grandchildren with the great grandchildren. There was Adam, and Bridget, and James, and then Liam was born to Jan and her husbands daughter Elizabeth, the child from China they adopted. One evening, Alice got out of bed to go downstairs to get a glass of water and slipped and fell on the second step going down and hit her head as she fell to the concrete floor between the landing and the three steps that went to the living room floor. Carol heard her fall and ran down the stairs, she called 911.
There was a vigil at the hospital as the entire Brady family, and Alice's remaining sister Myrtle were waiting as they operated on her. They all prayed in the hospital chapel and cried and reminisced about her. About how she was on the trampoline the time they borrowed one to stop Bobby's fear of heights.
"Remember the time when you and I were trying to beat those college boys with that teeter totter record and Alice got on the teeter totter when we needed to go to go to the toilet?"
Cindy asked Bobby, then Marcia asked them
"And remember the time Alice was going skiing with us and you were teaching her how to ski, and using that plywood and hay and she slipped and got splinters in her bottom?"
They laughed at that and then Peter asked them
"Yes! And remember the time we built that Brady Booth for the school fair and Alice fell into the water? "
"And how about the time she gave me the locket I still wear?"
Jan said. And then Carol asked them
"I'll never forget the first time we all went camping and we thought we heard a snake and it was Alice's curler pin that punctured her air mattress. And it was Alice that brought all that good food to camp, the cold cuts and fried chicken after the fish wouldn't bite.
"Remember the time that creep Mark Mallard came to town and tried to steal Alice's money and Sam came to the house with that frozen leg of lamb, and the creep was about to get arrested and he tried to escape out the patio door and that frozen leg of lamb that Sam had was in his arms and he ran into it and it knocked him out, and then Alice grabbed that pitcher and dumped all that water on his head? Then Sam asked her who that guy was and she said it was the man that she knew from a long time ago and he was wanted for stealing."
Greg asked them.
"Oh yeah! Remember the time Alice told us she was going home to care for her aunt and she really thought that we didn't need her anymore and we all fixed it where she was fixing chili burgers and pressing tuxedos and we told her Tiger ran away and we needed her to help us find him, then to top it all Peter and Bobby splattered mud all over that tuxedo Dad was wearing before he and Mom were supposed to go to that fancy dinner party. She told us that she figured out it was an act."
Jan said. Then the doctor came out.
"Mrs. Stewart is holding her own and she's also breathing on her own, but the next forty eight hours will be the most critical. She'll be okay to leave because cameras are in the ICU, so please go home and get some rest."
The next day. They all gathered at the hospital again and Carol picked up Myrtle again and they kept another vigil. At seven PM that night, The doctor came out of her room after she took a turn for the worst and told them to see her two at a time. They did as the doctor told them, They held her hand, kissed her cheek and told her they loved her. Alice Rachel Nelson Stewart passed away at 3AM. The Brady families went into deep mourning. One of the sweetest and unselfish women passed away, she would never be forgotten