What's the only word?

[bonanova]

Here are nine words before, after, and in-between which only one word can be placed that gives ten different meanings to the sentence. The word is used only once, in only one space at a time, to obtain the ten different meanings. What's the only word that works?

_____ TOM _____ HELPED _____ MARY'S _____ DAUGHTER _____ CLEAN _____ MARY'S _____ PARROT'S _____ CAGE _____ YESTERDAY _____.

[Molly Mae]

While I've never seen this arrangement of words, I've seen a similar observation on a study of the same word.

Btw, I laughed when I reread it.

[Izzy]

Spoiler

"Only", but I thought "morning" was a decent contender.