Although her real name was Maggie, almost everyone who knew her called her “Cricket.”  In my memory I can still see her waiting tables in the old Steak & Bake Restaurant on Main Street in Milan when I was a boy during the 1950’s.
    Her beautiful grey hair was always combed to perfection, and she was always clad in a neat white or pink waitress dress with one of her special handkerchiefs pinned below the lapel.
    Regardless of how many hungry and impatient customers gathered in for lunch, she always moved gracefully and unhurriedly from table to table in an easy-going manner and never seemed to get overly-excited.  She not only had that special knack of keeping all her patrons served and satisfied, but she also communicated love, happiness, and peace through her work.  She was serving sandwiches and French fries with a peaceful smile long before McDonald’s or Wendy’s came on the scene.
    Quite often during my boyhood days I would drop by the Steak & Bake, either by myself, with a friend after school, or with my parents for lunch or supper, and most of the time Cricket would be on duty and wait on us.  Just seeing her and hearing her voice brought peace and tranquility into my mind and heart, regardless of what might have been happening in my life.
    In 1990 I called her on the telephone.  She was living with a relative at the time, and she told me that she was in her 90’s and was having to crawl because she was no longer able to walk.  When she answered the telephone I said, “I’d like a grilled pimento and cheese sandwich, an order of French fries, and a strawberry milkshake.”  Although many years had passed since the last time she had seen me, she laughed, called my name, and asked,  “And how’s my little boy doing now days?”  Amazingly, she recalled my favorite childhood food.
    I told her how much I appreciated my boyhood memories of her and that she had made such a lasting and profound impression on me that I had chosen her as a model for a character in one of the novels I had written.  She was both surprised and gratified.
    Well, Cricket is dead, and the old Steak & Bake Restaurant is only a faint memory in the minds of a few persons who can still remember those days of yesteryear.  Yet, she graced and blessed the lives of so many of us who lived in Milan back then, and she truly made a difference, not only in the lives of the people in Milan, but through our lives into the larger world.  Having known Cricket is one more reason for me to write these wonderful memories--memories that will continue to live on and be more appreciated with the passing of time.
    Good-bye, Cricket.  Thanks for all you mean to each of us who knew, loved, and appreciated you.  You truly are an important part of the history of Milan.  (DHL)