Kaehelda was an old woman who lived on the edge of the town of Glen Mills.  She had lived in the old clap-board house for many years and no one in the town was older than Kaehelda.  She did not walk like most very old people, she stood straight.

                 Many folks called her strange because she mostly stayed to herself.  The most peculiar thing about the woman was her long, very long hair.  It was so long that when she sat down she would pull the long braid over her shoulder and let it lay on her lap.  The hair was black with streaks of gray.  When she went to church three or four times a year she wore her hair braided and shaped like a big paper clip with ribbon bows on each side.  When she attended a band concert, she wrapped the hair-tail around her head like a crown.

                 Twice a month Kaehelda went to the general store to buy her groceries and take them home in her old black pick-up truck.

                 "She is a mite queer," said a town character sitting on a bench at the store, as he saw the old woman coming toward the store.

                 "Never saw an old girl like her before," his friend added.  "Takes all kind of people to make up a town and this town has one odd woman in it." "Well, she could be a loud mouth," one loafer suggested.  "But she ain't.   Why do we think she is so different?  I think it is her hair and the long skirts that sweep the ground as she walks."

                 Lifting her skirts ever so slightly and showing her leather boots Kaehelda came up the porch steps.

                "Morning," she greeted the men.

                "Good morning, Kaehelda," the fellows said in unison.

                "She sure ain't lazy," said one of the guys after Kaehelda entered the store.  "She is as spry as a puppy and did you ever see a better garden than hers?  I heard that she works in her garden in the moonlight."

                 "Some dame she is, "said one of the men on the store porch.

                 Soon the old woman came out of the store carrying two bags of groceries.

                 "Madam, can I help you with your groceries?" asked Bert Doomaker.

                 "No thanks," replied Kaehelda.

                 When her feet were on the ground in front of the store she noticed two boys on the ground fighting near the corner of the building.  She went over to them and jerked both boys to their feet and held them there.

                 "Trying to kill each other," she scolded.

                "Mrs Kaehelda," said Jimmy Webster.  "Nick called you a crazy old hair tail woman and I 'm trying to beat him up for that."

                 "Well, I guess I do have a hair tail but I am not crazy," she said.  "Nick doesn't really know me.  When we don't know people we misjudge them.  Now both of you run along.  I don't want to see you fighting again.  Someone  will get a bloody nose."

                Kaehelda became known in the Glen Mills township as the hair tail woman. 

                Jimmy Webster delivered newspapers to the hair tail woman and probably knew her as well as anyone in Glen Mills.  He had found her to be an ordinary woman.  Except for her really long hair he saw nothing unusual about Kaehelda.

                 "Why doesn't Mrs. Kaehelda go to church every Sunday?" Jimmy Webster asked his mother."  I see her sitting at the table everyday reading her Bible when I deliver her paper?"

                 "Perhaps someone wasn't very friendly to her at church," answered his mother.  "I must visit her sometime."

                 It so happened in the town of Glen Mills when people had nothing else to talk about, their thoughts and words were about the hair tail women who had a very long braid of hair, wore her full skirts long and her black boots high.

                 When rowdy teens drove past her house on the way to Deer Park Lane,  the old woman was the object of much name calling.  One young ruffian would always shout as he slowed down his driving:

                 "Who has bats in her belfry and nuts in her cap, a hair tail for a mattress when she takes a nap.  It's Kaehelda, the Hair tail woman - wahoo."

                 The hair tail woman paid them no mind.  She had better things to do.  There was always a stack of books to read as she went to Clifton every two weeks and took home books from the Hallman Library.  The books were her friends.  Characters in the books never yelled ugly words at her.  Kaehelda was never ever lonely.  She liked the way she lived.

                 Often at twilight she sat at her old, very old pump organ.  She played and sang hymns and other old-time songs.  Her voice was still good and clear for an old person.

                 Every night the woman brushed her long hair over and over, maybe a hundred times or more.  Every morning she braided her hair before she fed her cat, Hobson, and cooked her own breakfast.  Hobson would curl up at her feet while she ate pancakes or blueberry muffins and drank coffee.

                 A light often was on in Kaehelda's attic in the midnight hours.  Men coming home from working the second shift at the juice factory saw the light and wondered why an old woman would have a light on in her attic.  Even the young housewives did not stay up that late.

                 "That is strange," said one worker.  "Most women in town are sound asleep by that time.  But then the hair tail woman is different." 

                  "She 's very strange," said the other worker riding home in the same car.  "Sometimes being different is O.K."

                 In springtime Kaehelda often went near the baseball field and watched the youngsters play ball.  She was usually by herself.  In winter when the pond was frozen over she put on her heavy coat with its warm hood and went out to watch young people skate.  She sat on the cement bench and shook her feet often to keep them from getting numb.  When the hair tail woman was young she was quite a skater and she knew that she could still ice skate, but she wouldn't take the chance of falling down.  She didn't want to be hurt and have other people taking care of her.

                 One thing Kaehelda did not do was watch television programs.  "Television," said she, " makes a person lazy."  She liked radio as she could listen and work at the same time.  The hair tail woman wasn't going to waste time with television.

                 Year after year the old woman's life went on in the usual routine until one night in late August, when she had been doing her secret work in the attic and was turning out the attic light she noticed a wild fire from the forest coming in the direction of her house and towards the town. 

                 The hair tail woman knew that she must act quickly, because the fire was burning fast toward some warehouse sheds just on the other side of three giant fuel tanks.  It was getting awfully close to her house.

                 She quickly called the fire station.  Then the ninety year old Kaehelda went outside and hooked up her two hoses.  She dragged the hoses to where she hoped to squirt the raging flames.  She was  so very excited that her feet got tangled in the hose and she fell.

                 The fireman arrived and found her lying there caught in the twisted loops.  A frieman freed her at once and carried her into the house and lay her on the sofa.

                 "Are you O.K., lady?" he asked.

                "Yes," she answered."  "Please save my house!"

                "Everything will be all right," answered the volunteer fireman.  "We won't let the fire reach your house.  You just rest while I go help the other men."

                 The brave firemen worked very hard fighting the fire that threatened the town of Glen Mills.  If it had not been for the hair tail woman, that end of town would have exploded, killing many people.

                 It wasn't too long before the monstrous fire was contained and almost out.  The volunteer fireman went back into Kaehelda's house to see if she was O.K.

                 She lay so quiet.  When he felt her pulse, he knew that the old woman had died.  Tears fell down his face when he thought of how she had saved the town.  Brave old soul, he thought. He immediatedly called the doctor to confirm that the hair tail lady was gone.

                 There was a letter on the table from Kaehelda's nephew in New York City.  The fireman contacted the nephew , the old woman's only living relative.

                 Next day the nephew arrived and made arrangements for the funeral and burial of Glen Mills' oldest citizen.  The service was held in the old Mission Chapel on Beak's Hill, where the hair tail lady had been baptized as a child of ten.

                 It was noised about town that the old woman had been brave trying to save so many people.  Many folks wished they had been nicer to Kaehelda.  She was indead quite a lady.  Few knew what a real jewel she was.

                 Crowds came to the funeral, but only a small group filled the chapel.  A loud speaker was used to get the message to those on the outside of the building.

                 After the sevice Kaehelda's nephew from New York City spoke to the congregation and said:

                "Aunt Kaehelda loved this town and everyone who lives here.  She often wrote to me about many of you.  She has remembered Glen Mills in her will."

                 The people listened more attentively.  What could this old woman leave to an entire town?

                 "Maybe you folks didn't know her as well as her old friends who died years ahead of her." the man continued talking.  "My sweet dear Aunt is at peace in Heaven.  Did you know that Aunt Kaehelda was a good artist and she painted many canvases for people to enjoy.  Her attic is full of the finest art work.  Also, she wrote 49 children's books that I am going to have printed.  The books will be beautifully colored for the children of this town."

                 "So that is what she was doing in the late night hours," Mr. Webster whispered to his wife. 

                 Kaehelda's nephew had more to say, "My aunt left her house to me.  I am a wealthy man and I do not need the house, so I am giving it and the twenty-five thousand dollars she had saved to you people in Glen Mills, her home town.  I will renovate the building, make it suitable for a library and art gallery.  I will also donate two thousand books to the library.  This will be my memorial to Aunt Kaehelda.  She will be pleased as she looks down from the windows in Heaven.  She loved this town of Glen Mills with all her heart.

                 The woman's body was laid to rest in a cemetary three miles from her house.

                 Kaehelda Library and Gallery became a building of renown.  People came from near and far away to view her paintings, which were marvelous works of art .  She had painted pictures of Glen Mills' children on the skating pond, the baseball diamond, playing in the school yard, girls jumping rope and boys on skateboards.  She had painted the Baptist Church with it's spire reaching heavenward and the old mission chapel so dear to her childhood.

                The youngsters loved her wonderful stories about children, critters and Bible characters that she had written with love, before her death.

                Everyone in Glen Mills was so proud that the hair tail woman had lived in their town. Each year a special day was set apart to honor Kaehelda.