Chapter One, I am Born

Well... actually... according to family lore, I was never born.

At least, according to a story I told my Bigmama when I was a small child. Bigmama was my great-grandmother and we were grand friends. She called me her ‘little honey’ and I slept with her when we went to visit my grandparents.

Bigmama, it seems, was telling me something about when I was born. I looked at her amazed and declared, “Bigmama! I wasn’t ever born!”

“Well, young lady…how do you think it is that you got here?”

My story went like this:

I was an angel in heaven and lost my wings. I tumbled and fell all the way to the earth, to a street corner in Louisville, Kentucky. I was standing there all by myself, singing “The Church in the Wildwood” when my Mother and Sweet Daddy walked by. They saw me there, all alone, and asked if I’d like to come live with them and their two boys. They liked the way I was singing and they told me that they needed a little girl, and were hoping for an Angel. My name would be Mollianne. I decided that would suit me just fine, since I couldn’t get back to heaven. So they took me home and I’ve been Mollianne and in the family ever since!

Bigmama was so amused that she told everyone and that has been the legend of how I came to be Mollianne and part of the family ever since.

A more mundane account is that I was born on May 20, 1957 during the 3 a.m. hour at the Baptist Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky to Bobbie and Charlotte Buster. Bobbie was finishing his first year of seminary and had a Greek Exam later that day. He studied through the night and he aced the exam. I must have been a good thing for him from the very start! He certainly set a high academic standard for me from the get-go!

I am named for my Sweet Daddy’s grandmother, Mollie, who by all accounts was a very good, longsuffering and kind woman. I feel very honored to have such a legacy to live up to. Since Mollianne is such a long name, my parents felt that I didn’t need a middle name. It was already included. Daddy wanted to name their second child Mollianne, but since that child was a boy, they chose something else. I’ve been told all my life that I’m lucky to have been a girl, because my name was going to be Mollianne no matter what! I have always thought it was a lovely name, and quite frankly…I think it suits me.

Back to my childhood version of how I came to walk the earth! In retrospect, it wasn’t all that off. Not in my understanding of the world around me. You see, my Mother used to call me her ‘Little Angel”on a regular basis. I suppose I have known for as long as I have been cognizant of the world around me that my Sweet Daddy wanted a little girl to name Mollianne. I cut my teeth on that truth. I knew that I entered the family when they lived in Louisville, Kentucky. As for the song I was singing, “The Church in the Wildwood” was on a Tennessee Ernie Ford recording that my Grandparents played for me and I loved that song. My favorite children’s book was “The Littlest Angel” so why not portray myself as an angel?

Rocket Man and Mollianne

Fast forward four decades to a couple sitting on a couch. Their relationship is brand new and very tender. Both have been hurt terribly in their previous marriages which are now defunct and each carry carefully guarded wounds and scar tissue. He looks at her and whispers, “Are you an angel?” The answer? With a big grin and in all seriousness, “Well, as a matter of fact…I am! You see…I was an angel in heaven and lost my wings. I tumbled and fell all the way to the earth, to a street corner in Louisville, Kentucky….”

That Rocket Man had been looking for an angel for a long, long time. My earnest prayer is that he has found exactly that. This Angel begin to experience healing and grace that evening from a man who recognized exactly who I was and how I got here! In fact, when he whispered that question, “Are you an angel?” a part of me that I thought was long dead was reborn.

(The angel above is from a book written and illustrated by a former co-worker, Marty Bibee, titled, “Sister Mary Mollianne’s Gift” and she claims that the inspiration for the character Sister Mary Mollianne (who is an angel) was inspired by me. When my grandsons saw the picture on the front, they exclaimed, "Grandmother...its you!" It was one of the most awesome and humbling gifts I have ever received.)

~Mollianne