Her mother died tragically as well, though not as dramatically. But it was just as heartbreaking. Mom would start by telling us a little bit about Grandma. She was as round as she was tall. So was her sister Mary,who took after Grandma. On the day my grandma died, she and my mom were alone in the house when my grandmother suffered a devastating stroke. My mom ran for help. Then she ran back to my grandma and held her in her arms until help came. But help came too late. She died. My mother told us that Grandma was only in her forties, too young to die.

One of my favorite stories is the one that made my mother and aunt laugh so hard. My aunt told us kids about how my mother tried to kill her. She would laugh so hard telling us: it was just a joke. What happened was in the spring they would chop a chunk out of a tree. Then they would suck the sap out. As my aunt was sucking on the sap, my mother - using an ax - tried to chop a chunk out of the tree, right over my aunt's head. Instead of the tree, she accidentally cut my aunt's cheek. They both thought this story was hilarious.

My mother married by the time she was 16. My brother was born shortly after. My mother would often say that the first baby can come any time, but after that, it takes nine months. By the time she was 20, she had 3 kids. Widowed at 27, she had four kids who were under the age of ro. I was only seven when my dad died. Up to then, all the homes I lived in lacked indoor plumbing. There was one house that had 3 holes in the outhouse. I remember when I was five, my mother, her friend and I went there. My mom always took one of us kids when she had to go to the outhouse, since she was so terrified of snakes.