Irony
To become a nanny, in traditional terms, was for unwed women in need of an income.
A very old-fashioned idea to Mary's mind. She had taken the role as an agreement, hearing the sound of obligation in the way the wind rattled at her windowpane.
Her mother had been pleased to hear she had found a calling. She had insisted on many vocations, to which Mary was met with silence. Clearly, they were not for her.
With this newfound position came a responsibility that she tried to be ready for. It hardly mattered to her that she would not be married nor have children. The youth are blinded by eternity. No, the universe had a place for her and she did not refuse it.
But it seemed that the universe had a sense of humour.
Mary Poppins was not one to be conventional nor was she one to live in a world that believed in impossibilities. The role of nanny, she wore with pride. Yet, the golden band across her finger, she was the most honoured to wear.
Her wards would ask if she had children of her own, mothers would sigh about how she could bear to be parted from her husband, and fathers wouldn't even notice she had a ring in the first place.
By her bedside, she kept a photograph of him, another beside it with three smiling faces. For she always thought of their daughter. She carried them with her, smaller photos kept in the locket under her blouse. Holding them dear till she set foot at their front gate, the door swinging open as a little figure almost knocked her to the ground.
"How do you balance both lives, Mary Poppins?" people would ask.
And she would scoff for it was a silly question.
"Anything can happen if you let it."