A Eulogy on Aibileen Clark from The Help (A Brief Tale of Hope)
Note: this was written for a school assignment (see the BLOG page for more information on October 31st, 2016; do note that this was written from a fictitious character's point of view, of which was created by me)!
Aibileen… she was a good woman to all of us. Lord, she was like a mother to me. From what I remember during my childhood spent being raised by her, it seemed to me that she more concerned about the people around her greater than herself. And there’s proof, too: just take a look into her infamous prayer book to see just how many people she’s written and hoped and cared for. Hell, even that church book worked its sorry butt off until the very end. However, as much as I thought I had known her when she was still with us, Aibileen’s life has continued to unfold right before my eyes for days now. A while back, she told me a phrase she told to one of her baby girls every day, which would be, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important,” a compliment she should’ve been telling herself every single day (Stockett 199).
She wasn’t all smiles and rainbows to her environment, though. The lovely Miss Skeeter told me once that, “I can’t help but notice, she stands a little taller in her own house,” something even I never stopped to think (Stockett 143). She worked day in and day out for plenty of people, one of which was my birth mother, but still was subject to the terrible racism of the time. Oh, why do I bother? We all know what she did for everyone: we all know that she was the first one to do it, too. It all started with her, and I’m sure we can’t thank her enough for it.
The Help. Nobody really talked about it at first, but after a certain television show featured it on broadcast, Lord did it spread like wildfire. All sorts of people buying it left and right, all thanks to Aibileen Clark. If it weren’t for her, who knows: maybe the civil rights progress of our time wouldn’t be as far as it is today. When I asked her about her initial reaction to the offer of telling the true stories of being a maid in Jackson, Mississippi, she laughed and told me she said this right to Miss Skeeter: “Miss Skeeter, I do this with you, I might as well burn my own house down,” something I can’t quite blame her for doing (Stockett 103)!
Oh God, I’m tearing up just thinking about it again, but I shouldn’t be: Aibileen was a courageous woman, a courageous person. Standing up to people like Miss Hilly, putting her in her place. When I asked her about the final meeting she had with that spiteful woman, I was surprised to see she wasn’t laughing when I heard the story, crying neither. Aibileen looked me square in the eyes and boldly exclaimed what she told Miss Hilly: “I know something about you and don’t you forget that,” something she released from deep within with fire in her eyes (Stockett 441). She made it through so many things: heartbreak, loss of a son, and so much more, but she battled through it, still remaining the same person I had known all those years. I love Aibileen, and I’m certain that she will remain in everyone’s hearts, who remember or not, for years to come.