Page 139 - Adobe Photoshop PDF

day Mrs. Keyes arrived and Manuel was immediately reassigned. We
enjoyed the experience of his services.

Jean was not anxious to have a servant in the house, feeling that
that was somewhat intrusive to the family. When she had Vicki, she rec-
ognized that she could use some additional household assistance. About
this time, a few Aramco families were able to bring Italian women from
Eritrea to work as housemaids. We contracted to hire an Italian maid.
Maria Carpeggiani came to us. Like many of the Italians in Eritrea she
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in Arabia. Maria was about 40 years old and had never had children.
Whether she had been married to her “husband” was a matter of conjec-
ture, but she was now on her own. When Maria arrived some of Jean’s
female friends said, “Oh how nice! She will be able to care for your
baby.” I was rarely prouder of Jean than when she told them, “I will take
care of my baby. Maria can do the laundry and housework.” Those were
my sentiments exactly – hiring someone to care for your child is not my
idea of how life should be lived.

We had a large rear entry hall and a separate toilet and shower,
so these became Maria’s. Maria had a loud voice so we could hear her
anywhere in the house. When Cindi was born, she was darker skinned
than Vicki and had very dark eyes. Sometimes Maria would tease Jean
by saying, “That baby [meaning Vicki] is yours; this baby is mine.” Ma-
ria was very much taken with Cindi. She used to say, “What a beautiful
baby, how beautiful she is.”
When I was transferred to Ras Tanura in 1954, Maria went with
us. However, she gradually developed an attachment to visiting the Ital-
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of the small children while we went to a party. When we returned, we
found that she had left the children in our absence. We were terribly dis-
appointed. I also found that she was sending more money back to Italy
than we were paying her. We immediately terminated her employment
and paid her way back to her native village in Italy.

For company convenience, our 1953 Long Vacation was sud-
denly moved forward from September and, instead, we departed in June.

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