Mary Poppins remembers everything about her life - everything, that is, except for how it began.

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A new look at who Mary Poppins is, how she came to be, and how she figured it out.

Mary Poppins remembers everything that has happened in her life –– everything except for how it began. Sometimes, she'll remember a flash of light or the feeling of falling, but past that, nothing. She came to be exactly as she is today –– Mary Poppins, with magic coursing hot through her veins –– and has changed minimally since then.

Both children and adults like to speculate about who or what Mary Poppins is –– most commonly an angel, a witch, or perhaps even a fairy. None of their suggestions seem to fit, they'll decide after a time, and the subject is promptly moved past. ( They all forget her eventually. )

The fact is, she sees a lot of people throughout their lives. She nannies for some families for centuries, coming and going with the changing wind. Each time leaving nothing more than a faint glow, a pleasant dream, and perhaps a small bauble. ( Some she wishes she could give more. ) She'll never say so if asked directly, but it can be lonely –– to always flit in and out of people's lives and to constantly be forgotten. She finds a few constants as time continues on –– a select number of people who seem to continue on similarly to herself. They, unlike her charges, never forget her and over time, Mary Poppins begins to regard them as friends.

The first she ever met, is none other than Mrs. Corry, a boisterous old woman who runs a conversation and sweets shop known to pop up wherever – and whenever – she pleases. She looks as old as Father Time himself, but she's sharp as a tack. Her daughters – Annie and Fannie – work alongside her, slipping spare compliments into their own pockets when their mother isn't looking ( or so they think ). Not long after meeting Mrs. Corry, Mary meets Albert Wigg. A silly, rotund man, who insists that everyone call him 'uncle'. Uncle Albert always has a place for a friend to spend the night should they need one, no questions asked. On occasion, his birthday especially, his own laughter lifts him into the rafters for days on end.

And, of course, there's Herbert Alfred, more commonly referred to as simply Bert. Bert and his band of merry sweeps. Their jobs change with the times, and sometimes they'll pop up in someplace new, but the sweeps themselves are always the same. They always seem to be waiting for Mary, arms open, and ready for a dance where the city of London meets the sky as the sun creeps back into the sky. Flatterers, the lot of them.

Bert especially.

One night, after a quickstep, Bert had whispered to her, " Mary Poppins, when y' smile, I'd swear y' was glowin'. "

She'd called him silly, of course. She smiles plenty and no one else has ever said anything. He insisted for a moment that there was something different about it, grinned when she pressed him for an explanation, and said nothing more. Before she could say another word, she's swept away by the rest of the sweeps, all of them chanting step in time, step in time! Bert doesn't stop grinning - even as she flies into the morning light.

She misses his cheeky grins most while she's away.