September 8, 2024 – Madeline

(Originally written August 20, 1994. Edited September 8, 2024.)

Monday, August 20, 1994, had not started as I wished.  

I was tired, frustrated, grieving the loss of two dear friends, and feeling every bit of the approaching 62 years of age.

I headed to the post office to run an errand in Eddyville, Kentucky. My cell phone rang. I had it on a hands-free speaker reluctantly, and I answered it. I had been hoping not to be bothered for an hour or so.

Answering that phone led to a most unusual old memory involving a young lady named Madeline.

I did not recognize the number other than the area code 423, East Tennessee. We still have friends there, so why not pick up?

She said her name was Madeline and had been searching for me for the past year.

I immediately began to suspect a scam, but I listened because she seemed sincere in her request to speak to me for just a few minutes.

What follows is her story.

Madeline (this is how I am spelling her name; I am unsure of its spelling or that of her Mother). She and her Mother, Ally, shared the same birthday on August 20.

She asked me if I had lived in East Tennessee in August 1994 and if I drove a dark green or gray pickup Toyota truck at that time.

I replied that we lived in East Tennessee—Oak Ridge, to be exact. In June of that year, I bought a dark green/grey Toyota pickup truck.

She then asked if I remembered a Clinton Highway situation on that Saturday.

I said not right off hand and now began to wonder what kind of scam was underway.

According to Madeline, who at that time was four years old, this was the story her Mother told her each year on their birthdays until her Momma died last year.

It seems that Madeline, her Mother Ally, and Ally’s boyfriend lived at the Twilight Mobile Home Park on Clinton Highway that August.

It was about 11 a.m. Saturday morning when, Madeline scooted a flimsy kitchen chair up to the trailer door and unlocked it. She was tired of waiting for her Mother to get out of bed and get them ice cream.

She climbed down, went to her Mom’s purse, and got a dollar for some ice cream.

She then proceeded down to the easement of the busy highway to cross over to the local convenience store. It was, after all, her birthday.

I began to remember the story as she told it.

Madeline continued. She says she was right at the edge of the road when this man in a dark green/grey pickup truck sped by and realized she was going to try and cross the busy highway.

The truck stopped quickly; a man jumped out, ran across the highway, and grabbed her just as she started to step out into traffic.

He wore blue jean shorts, a black T-shirt, and a black hat with the emblem Martin Marietta.

Almost simultaneously with his grab of the girl, a deputy sheriff, a woman, stopped and threw on her lights.

Madeline says she remembers little about this besides being grabbed up quickly as she was about to enter traffic.

The man put his ball cap on her head because the sun was intense. He stroked her back, reassured her she was safe, and asked her name and where she lived.

Madeline says her Mother always filled in the details of the story. She repeated this memory to her every year on their birthdays.

When she shared this detail, I pulled to the side of the road and listened.

What follows is my best recollection.

Her Mother, Ally, and her boyfriend ran from the trailer when they heard the brakes squeal and the commotion. 

By this time, her Mom says there were two more cop cars on the scene. Her Mom told her that she and her boyfriend were sleeping off a bad night of drinking and drugging.

My Momma told me she ran up to you and the woman deputy.

She says she saw you were stroking my back and talking quietly.

She remembered that you were sweating a lot, had taken out a red old-fashioned hanky, and was wiping your forehead and face while still holding on to me and reassuring me that everything was okay. She said you kept saying she was safe.

I must have said something about ice cream and that I was getting it for my Momma and me since it was our birthday.

You kept saying you would get us some ice cream. However, I needed to be calm and patient.

My Momma got in your face and screamed and cursed at you, wanting to know what you were doing with her baby. She said you had on a pair of aviator sunglasses.

But she remembered how calm you were with me even though she was screaming at and cursing you something awful.

Then Momma says her boyfriend came storming at you as if he intended to take me away from you.

She says you and the deputy were talking. The two Knoxville cops had now walked over to separate Momma and the boyfriend so they could speak with them separately and calm them down.

When the boyfriend pushed Momma out of the way and called her a bad name, she started mouthing you again. You removed your sunglasses but never flinched or stepped back as she said.

She remembered you looked right at the boyfriend and had one of the most intense and “deadly stares” she had ever seen.

Momma said if looks could kill, he would have been dead instantly.

She said your probing, intense eyes and your bearing scared her.

When the boyfriend reached for me and the deputy started to step in, you said to the boyfriend, touch me, that woman or this child, and I will hurt. Then, we will both be going to jail.

Momma said you never raised your voice or moved to raise a hand – you just slightly stepped forward and stared at him. That was when the deputy grabbed and handcuffed him and took him to her car.

Momma said she just kept looking at you, and you told her, “Mam, you deserve better—and this lovely daughter of yours deserves much better.”

She says she was mad and wanted to scream and curse you even more, but you just looked at her – not staring now – just looked intensely.

And you said again, never raising your voice – you must get your act together, mam.

It was then that another cop came up and asked you for identification. He requested my Momma to go with him. He led my Momma over to his car and handcuffed her.

She says during this entire time, you never let go of me.

You would now and then adjust your cap on my head and quietly say something while you stroked my back. I was smiling and still asking about some ice cream.

The cop then took you to my Momma and, in front of her, asked if you would be willing to testify to her being negligent. You said you would. Momma says she was pissed.

Then they took you to the boyfriend; you were still carrying me, Momma said. She said she guessed they asked the same thing because you gave a statement and signed it, and they took down your information on the police report.

About that time, a lady from social services showed up, and Momma said she watched you reluctantly hand me over to her.

She says she thought you wiped your eyes – she wasn’t sure if you were crying or just wiping sweat.

The social service person tried to take your hat off my head, but you said I could keep it.

Momma says that you spoke to the lady for several minutes, and she took some notes because she had sat me down in the car in the seat.

Then, keeping your promise, Momma said you ran across the highway to the store and returned with two ice cream sandwiches.

You gave me one and took one to my Momma. She says she swore at you and told you to stuff that ice cream where the sun didn’t shine.

She remembered you looked right through her and smiled. Then she said that you very quietly in front of the cop — said, that’s fine, mam, I’ll eat it. And apparently, you did.

I want you to know that Momma had to go to rehab. The boyfriend was on parole and ended up back in jail. They never reunited.

Momma says that for six months, she was in rehab, and every day, she swore to whoever would listen that she would find you one day and ‘put a world of hurt on you’ for having done what you did to the two of us.

I ended up for that six months in a foster home.

However, Momma said a counselor asked her why she was so mad at you about a month before she got out.

She told him the story, and he told her she should be grateful instead of mad.

After all, you stopped that day and kept me from possibly getting hit on the highway. Maybe, he said, she should find you and thank you for saving her and her daughter’s life.

Momma said that she thought about that a lot that last month.

She came out of rehab and got a job in a nursing home.

I got my high school diploma. Then, I went to a vocational-technical school and became an electrician.

I’m dating a nice fellow from TVA. We are saving our money and plan to marry when he finishes his degree at UT next summer.

Momma’s health from all the drugs and drinking never got back to good, but it was the cancer that finally got her. She was a pack-a-day smoker and constantly had a cup of coffee in her hand.

She said she gave up the drugs and drinking but not the smokes.

Every year on August 20, she would tell me this story.

She recalled a few other things – she believed you saved our lives that day.

She had never seen a man who could be so gentle, kind, and sweet towards a child he didn’t even know.

She says she knows you must have been an attentive father.

But she also said she had never seen before or after a man with such an intense stare, and she knew in her heart that you could ‘put a world of hurt’ on him or her.

She saw it in your eyes; however, she also saw a lot of love in those eyes – she always said you must be very complex.

Here, Mr. Armstrong, is how I found you.

I spent the last year working with a friend at the Sheriff’s Department. We found the field report you signed, and I got your name and Googled you. It’s scary, but don’t worry—I am not stalking you.

I promised my Momma I would find you one day and thank you for both of us.

So, thank you most sincerely for being the man you are.

I’m sorry I can’t find that old hat. Momma said I wore it for a year or so, but she took it from me when I was around seven years old to keep.

Later, she cut out the Martin Marietta emblem and kept it in her treasure chest.

I hope you don’t mind, but I will keep it in my treasures now.

Thank you for listening, sir.

I am glad I finally caught up with you.

Thanks again.

May God Bless you.

Maybe one day I can return this favor to someone.