Maria was positively regal.
With her head held high, perfect posture, and always a great hat, she came across as a woman from another era. An image I have of her is driving us across the Manhattan Bridge to do something or other in town, perhaps take the girls to their pediatrician. As I turned and looked at her, I wondered about the incongruity of the scene with this formidable woman, in a hat and elegant earrings, driving her Lincoln Town car on the bridge, with the towers of Chinatown behind her. Maybe I thought she should be in the back seat and there should be a driver in the front?
But as stylish as Maria was she was completely down to earth. Illustrated by the fact that she once drove us to Save On Fifth, my favorite five-and-dime, and waited for us across the street while we shopped. As we came out of the store we watched as a man tried to hail Maria’s Lincoln – Town Cars such as hers, back in the day, were most often found in New York as an alternative to yellow taxi cabs.
Had she not had her family to drive home, I have no doubt that Maria would have accepted a fare from a total stranger to get him to his destination. Then she would have bought something for the girls with the money she had earned.