This was not an easy decision for Ida. “She loved her,” said one of her relatives, “but I think she began
to feel as if she was failing where Norma Jeane was concerned. She took the child’s fragility as an
indication that she had not done what she set out to do with her, which was to make her stronger. But
Norma Jeane was strong. She was just a girl. She was very sensitive, very vulnerable… and that’s what
threw Ida off, I think.”
The next day, Norma Jeane was told that her mother was on her way and that she would be taking her
home with her. This was confusing. “But I am home,” Norma Jeane said. “Yes you are,” Ida told her,
“and you can come back anytime you want to.”
Still quietly sniffling through tearful moments for the rest of the day, the little girl kept her eyes fixed
on the street outside the front window waiting for the mysterious—and sometimes even scary—woman
who had come from time to time to visit and promise her a good life “someday.”
Silent and focused only on getting the job done in an efficient manner, Ida packed a little suitcase for
Norma Jeane, just a few things. Then she called her into the kitchen and sat her down at the table for a
talk. “I want you to know that we’ll always be here for you,” she told her, according to a later
recollection. She spoke very slowly as if to give more weight to her words. “We’ll always love you,”
she added reassuringly. “But we just think that it’s time for you to know your mother. Your real mother.
Do you understand?” As Ida spoke to Norma Jeane, all of the other foster children were grouped in the
living room, crying. The noise must have driven Ida crazy. Clearly, no one wanted to see Norma Jeane
go, even though the time had come for her departure. Ida began to rethink things. Was this really the
right decision? Perhaps she was being hasty? Should she call Gladys back and say she had changed her
mind? No. She had always been decisive and now was not the time to change.
Finally, Gladys pulled up in front of the Bolender home and tooted her vehicle’s horn. She didn’t get
out of the car.
Inside the house, Ida put Norma Jeane’s coat on her and buttoned it. Bending down to her eye level, she
put strong hands on narrow shoulders. Her eyes filled with sudden warmth as she gazed at her sad
foster child, this girl she’d known and loved since infancy. She hugged her tightly. “I’ll miss you,
Norma Jeane,” she said. Then, handing her the small suitcase, she sent her on her way.
With a very troubled look on her little face, Norma Jeane walked down the sidewalk and got into the
car with a woman she thought of as a stranger. She didn’t sit in the front seat next to her, though.
Rather, she opened a rear door and got into the back of the vehicle. Then, peering out the window as
the car drove off, she watched the only mother she’d ever known fade into the distance. Norma Jeane
Mortensen had no idea where she was going. She only hoped that wherever it was, it would be… home.
A New—and Temporary—Life
When Gladys Baker picked up her daughter from the Bolenders, she did not arrive alone. With her was
her close friend who had once babysat Norma Jeane, the woman who, as it would turn out, would
become a key figure in the young girl’s life, Grace Atchinson McKee. She was Gladys’s roommate for
some time and worked with her at Consolidated Studios, also as a splicer, or “cutter,” of film negatives.
Consolidated was a film laboratory and processing company, the leader in its industry for many
decades in Los Angeles. Finally, Gladys was making a good wage there and was able to settle into a
more stable life. It was tedious work, though. Basically, she spent six days a week reviewing endless
rolls of film negatives in order to cut the sections that had been previously marked by studio editors.
She then handed the material over to another department for the final splicing. The walls of the
building in which she worked were thick cement with not many windows. There was no air
conditioning, and at times it was absolutely stifling inside. However, it was a steady job, and that was
all that mattered. She’d also made a good friend there, Grace.