Recently, my thoughts also turned towards my cousin Mary wright. mary is my grandmother's second cousin. Her grandmother, Aunt Jenny, was a daughter of Caroline Roper and a sister to Mattie Roper. Mary Wright's mother was our Cousin Maldocia. Mary used to live in Chicago, not far from us and we always spent a lot of time with Mary, her daughters and their families. She moved back to Alabama the same time we moved down there, and she basically moved usdown there. My father designed them a very nice house that sits out on their property. What got me to thinking about Mary Wright was Uncle Lawrence--and thinking about the people that I knew with his kind of tempermant. Mary is one of those people. Mary is nobody to play with. One of the absolutely most hilarious stories that ever I have heard was when, in the late eighties, Mary laid a whooping on her son-in-law, daughter number one's husband. Daughter number one had married herself a real male chauvinist thug and he thought he was the baddest shit on the block. He used to beat daughter number one and everybody was wondering as to why she was with him. Well, now he is a Reformed Man(after first getting beaten by Daughter number two, Mary herself, and finally Daughter number one herself).

Well, in this particular incident, Mary had broken her arm and was in a cast for several weeks on end. So, son-in-law decides, I suppose, that now that Mary is in a cast he can show her what he was made of, so one night he decided to hit her. That was the worst decision he ever made in his life. The story is that Mary used that broke arm and had him up against every wall in that house and laid a whoopin on him that lasted him a good few days. That news spread like wildfire, and the story still circulates. Mary was absoluetely nothing to play with. In another incident, Mary got good and hot and told one of our mutual cousins just who exactly her daddy was and had that poor girl going home in tears.

I was always scared of Mary. I saw how she handled her grandchildren and I wanted none of it. It was always fun to ride around and visit with Mary, but I always stayed on my Ps and Qs because I definitely did not want to feel the wrath. Mary Wright is a favorite though.