“A clean home, a clean body, and clean company. Do you know where that leads?”
I could not have been more than five years old when she taught me this. I looked way up at her as she spoke. “Where does it lead, Gran?”
“To a clean conscience. To a good, clean life.”
–The Maid by Nita Prose
Who do you have around you?
Sometimes company is chosen, and sometimes it’s thrust upon us based on circumstances we have little control over. The people who live next door, the coworkers you work closely with (but perhaps you maybe wouldn’t have hired), the new friends and the old, and of course, family. Whoever they are, the people we interact with can have a meaningful impact on our lives, whether we choose them or not.
In The Maid by Nita Prose, a heartwarming story about an unconventional maid at an upscale hotel, Molly Gray finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery that changes her life. At the beginning of the novel, Molly is, for lack of a better word, struggling. Her grandma, who was not only her parent-figure but also her best friend, has recently died. She is in deep financial trouble. She feels misunderstood at work, lost in a world that her Gran used to help her make sense of.
For a long time, Molly’s primary company was Gran. Molly’s parents unfortunately were not in a position to raise her, and Gran, for all intents and purposes, was not necessarily the person that Molly chose. But throughout the book, we can see that Gran was the best company for her; she was loving, patient, and understanding, and even after Gran’s death, we consistently see Molly ponder upon the lessons Gran instilled within her. Even after death, Gran is still keeping Molly company.
Constrastly, the company Molly has chosen is Rodney, a slick, attractive bartender at the Regency Grand Hotel. Molly struggles to see the disingenuous nature of Rodney: his criminality, his lies, and his deceit. She makes attempts to be around him, in the hopes that they may enter into a romantic relationship. But her attempts to win his approval and to be in his orbit inevitably threaten her safety and land her in sticky situations.
The Maid has a happy conclusion of course, and in the end, Molly prevails and finds herself surrounded by the best company–such as Mr. Preston and his daughter, Charlotte–people who choose her unexpectedly. But I couldn’t help but think about the quote at the beginning of this post during and after reading The Maid. Sometimes we want certain people in our lives for shallow reasons. We try to enter into friend groups because we want to seem cool, or have proximity to power, or we try to desperately win the romantic attentions of someone because they are beautiful or talented or well-liked. Throughout life, we have moments where we are striving to belong somewhere. Sometimes it can feel like we’re knocking on doors that no one wants to answer. But I agree with Gran–clean company is integral to our lives. And sometimes it takes a while to find it, or sometimes it finds you, like in The Maid. Molly doesn’t seek help; the help comes to her.
Ultimately, being around good people, people who have pure intentions and good hearts who show up for you in unexpected ways is a gift. Like Gran said, good, clean company can be the best thing for us. Life will always have plenty of messes, but it sure helps when we have great people to help us clean them up.
Listen to the latest episode here:
She Happily Reads 