This is where it all began! My mom and dad married in October of 1955. Three months later they were expecting me!! My mom was only 17 years old when I was born in September 1956. My dad was 19 years old.

And Here I am! I made my arrival on September 8, 1956 and we became a family! My mom was so proud of her new baby.I was about three weeks old here in this picture.

It's Christmas time! This was my first Christmas and I was 3 1/2 months old here in this picture. Looks like my mom is a natural at mothering!

My mom was a very strict mother, wanting her children to be perfect. She wanted me to be perfect. Good manners were expected at all times, good behavior also. A little cutting up was allowed but not much! She was strict in the early years, but she loved us very much.

I was the only child for 4 years. Then in April of 1960 my brother was born several weeks early. He lived only two days due to complications caused by neglect during birth. This was a devastating blow to our family and my mother was never quite the same again. To bury your child changes you. She was very bitter for years, angry at a God who would let this happen. Two years later, when I was almost 6, she had a little girl..my sister! Two years after that she had a little boy, my brother! Several years later she would meet a pastor who helped her to work through this anger and grief, and come to know Jesus as her personal Savior. She turned herself over to the Lord and gave her children to Him as well.

It was a rough life, in that we moved a LOT! My daddy was in retail management and very good at shaping up sluggish stores. Unfortunately, that meant moving from place to place. While he poured himself into his work, she was at home alone, with us. She never had much friend support because there was barely time to make friends and she was a bit of a shy and private person. We were usually a long way from family which meant infrequent visits home. It was a lonesome life for her.

One pleasant pasttime for her was sewing. She loved to sew and made most of the clothes we wore. When I was in elementary school, during the summer months she would feed us lunch and then the little ones would go down for naps. She would head for her little sewing room and I would go with her. We would talk or sing - she used to tell me about her childhood and the antics of her siblings when they were growing up. It was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon and we often passed the afternoons in this way. These times remain among my most pleasant memories growing up.

My parents had their problems. Though they loved one another, they did not understand one another's needs very well. They separated, got back together, then divorced, then remarried, then separated again, got back together and then when I was in 10th grade my daddy left for the last time. Whew! Are you still with me? It was a rocky, tumultuous childhood with little security. The constants in our everchanging world were my mom and her parents - my Nannie and Paw Paw. We always had them!

After my dad left, my mom became everything to us. She and I became closer than ever, sharing most everything. Together, we worked - she at her job, and me at school and running the house for her. Most nights I cooked supper and we all ate together, then I cleaned the kitchen. She spent time with the younger ones, talking about their day, doing homework and throwing a load in the washer in between. After kitchen duty I would get on my homework and then after the younger ones were bathed and in bed, I would go in her room and we would sit on the bed like teenagers at a slumber party! We would talk about all sorts of things - kids at school, kids at church, God, life, heaven - nothing was off limits. Around midnight, she would shoo me off to bed for morning would come early!

On weekends we all did team cleaning on Saturday morning. No one got to go out and play until they had done their chores. My brother and sister had to clean their rooms and then wait for mama to come and approve the job!! Most of the time she had to come back twice! Hehee... my sister always swept EVERYTHING in her room under the bed! My mother would pull it all out and with tears in her eyes, Leigh would begin all over! My brother was responsible for his room. Mama did the washing and some concentrated cleaning and I did the vacuuming and dusting all over the house.

My brother played youth sports so we had our seasonal games to attend. We had school functions now and then. My mom and I once took tennis lessons - we weren't very good though! Our lives mostly revolved around church. We were there whenever the doors were open. It was of utmost importance ~ if you were on your deathbed, you missed church. Even today, I don't like to miss church.This was our life. Money was tight and had to be carefully watched. We didn't feel deprived though. We were a team, the four of us. The Lord led the way and like a mother duck with her little ducklings, we followed earnestly. There were many times we could see His faithfulness and provision in our lives.

Then, in the fall of 1974 everything changed. Coming next - a new chapter filled with uncertainty, fear, danger and desperation. Are you ready to go ON TO THE NEXT PAGE?