Let me tell you a story, it is about a lady I once knew. She was born in a small rural community of Hernando County in the west central gulf coast of Florida early in the 20th century. At the time of her birth, no woman could vote in this country, no married woman could own real property in and of her own right, and young women either got married, became a teacher, a nurse, a maid or went to work in a bank. Her mother was a homemaker, her father a fisherman.

She was the fourth of eight children and the youngest daughter. Times were hard and luxuries were few. There was no running water, indoor bathroom, or electricity in a 3 room house that housed a minimum of 10 people at any given time, and usually more as grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins all lived there with them at one time or another, not to mention those who visited for a week or two. Water was collected each time it rained into a cistern from the rusty tin roof. She only owned two changes of clothing and laundry was toted for a mile to a nearby lake and scrubbed by hand, with homemade lye soap, rinsed, wrung out and toted back home, wet. There it was hung on fences and bushes to dry. After the laundry had dried, it was then taken in and mended, if necessary, and ironed with a flat iron that was heated on the wood burning stove. Reading was done by oil lamp and reading material was sparse, except for the Bible. Cooking was done on a wood burning stove, and water had to be boiled for doing dishes after the meal. Drinking water was kept in a pail in the kitchen with a dipper hanging on a nail above it to serve as a community-drinking vessel. Sundays the family attended a nearby Church.

She attended a one-room school for nine years, having to leave school to stay home and take care of younger siblings and an elderly aunt. Opportunities to better her station in life were few and most of those were denied her thru lack of a formal education. One day she met a man, eight years her senior, who noticed that she had a rare and true beauty that can only come from a pure soul. He was the ice deliveryman, and was sure to see her on a fairly regular basis. Not once in their acquaintance were they ever alone, and they never had a date as we have come to know them. Anyway and in spite of all the discouragement, romance blossomed and against her mother's wishes she married him shortly before her 19th birthday. Her father signed the papers so she could be married and her mother would not even let her have anything other than the clothes on her back.

So started the married life of a young girl and her husband. They had no place to live, other than a room in a boarding house and her husband had even less education than she did. Lack of education kept them both from being able to pull themselves up from the poverty, in which both had existed, still life went on. Not long after their marriage the husband went blind; the local physician wanted him to be seen in Valdosta, GA by a doctor who was more knowledgeable about his condition. They left Hernando County on a bus and went to Madison, Co., FL to the husband's family home, a home that had been stolen from him and his only brother by a cruel and greedy stepfather.

The stepfather owed him over $1200.00 for his share of the property that his father had left him and his brother. The amount would have been ample to cover the Doctor fees and living arrangements. Well this did not happen, the stepfather refused to give them the money and told him and his wife to get out. Still they persevered and got the treatment necessary to restore his sight.

After they got back to Brooksville, they had to start all over again, with nothing. The husband got a job, and a daughter was born, it is late 1938 and soon the world will be involved a war that would affect everyone's life, regardless of station in life. It is late summer 1941 again, a daughter is born.

World War II, the war to end all wars, had begun and the United States was catapulted into this war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Prior to December 7, 1941, the United States were involved as support to the Allies. But now American soil had been attacked, War had been declared! Like many men of his time, he attempted to join the Army, however due to a growth found in his throat, this option was denied. Another attempt to better their station in life thwarted. Again Life goes on and they persevere, the young woman's faith in God never wavering.

After 2 more daughters and several jobs that promised a better future for their growing family, a position is found. That of a driver and yard man for a local lumber company. In 1955, eight years after the birth of their youngest daughter, another child is born, yet again, a daughter. The longed for son was not to be. Again, times are hard and money is short, luxuries are only a dream, still they persevere and life goes on.

It is 1960, after a long and hard day at work unloading a lumber truck; the husband has a heart attack. It is a severe one that will leave him unable to work and provide for his family. By this time, there are only 3 daughters at home as the two oldest have married and have families of their own. Social Security is still relatively new and the amount was only a pittance. The wife must now seek employment in order to provide for her family. She finds employment in a major food company's citrus processing plant an hour away. Her salary is small and she must pay for carfare, leaving very little to care for her family. Still her faith in God never wavers and she is depending on Him to pull them thru.

It is winter now and the year is 1964, only the youngest child remains at home. All four older girls are now married with their own children. Life would have been a little easier, financially, but her middle child's husband is severely injured in an automobile accident and she has moved back home with her family, which includes a toddler and an infant. Her husband is confined to bed with his injuries and the daughter is not working. Instead of three people to provide for, the number has blossomed to seven with no increase financially to lighten the load. Again times are hard, money is tight and still the wheel of life is ever turning.

It is now the spring of 1965, and all her grown children are living in their own homes and for the first time in months, maybe years, she feels like she is getting a break, with only three people in the family money goes a little farther and things are not quite so desperate as they were. Well, that well needed and deserved respite would not last long. In the middle of the night she must take her husband to the hospital with what would be a fatal stroke and heart attack. What is she ever to do, she is 47, has a nine year old daughter to support and no education nor any job opportunities available in the small town in which she lives. Times are extremely hard, there is no money. The husband had no life insurance above what was necessary to pay his funeral expenses and the clerk at the social security office has made a costly mistake, one that cost her any promise of income for six months.

The lady has no one to whom she can turn to for assistance, there are few assistance programs available and her family has offered no assistance and from past experience, even if she asked, it would be denied. She has a fatherless daughter for whom there will be no dinner tonight or for many nights to come. Still life goes on and she is yet trusting in God to see her thru this trying and difficult time.

A few weeks later she is able to gain part time employment in the cafeteria of the elementary school her daughter attends. Now there will be food to eat, at least until the end of the school year which is only six weeks away. What she will do then she does not know, but God will get her thru. He always has and her faith and trust in Him has never wavered. She manages to eke through the summer by babysitting other children and in the fall was able to find employment in the local citrus packinghouse. At last, a weekly check, at least until spring and Praise God a social security check was in the mail today! God is good and life indeed goes on.

She and her daughter manage to survive on the little that they have and now it is the spring of 1969 and she is to remarry today, to a man who is quite a bit older, but whom she has known most of her life. Her young daughter is now thirteen and quite happy that her mother is to remarry, however her older four daughters are not at all happy about it and make their displeasure known to one and all. Still life goes on and thank God , that life is now a little easier as she no longer has to shoulder the financial burden alone.

It is the summer of 1969, man has walked on the moon, it is the "summer of love", she is devastated, her husband of just a few months has suffered a severe heart attack and may not pull through the night. "Why God she asks? Just when my burdens became a little easier to bear did You allow this to happen?" The husband pulls through and is unable to do anything that might be the least taxing for many months, but finally he has recovered as much as he ever will and they go back to work at the packinghouse for another fruit season.

It is now 1971 and for the first time in her life, she has a house that she owns! The small trailer that she lived in for several years after her first husband's death does not count. THIS is a real home. She and her husband have just purchased her mother's home from her brother. Her mother has had a stroke and is now living up the road with her sister. She is relatively happy and life is good, for a change, and times not quite as hard as they had been. She feels that God has blessed her well and rewarded her for her faith in Him.

All through the years her faith in Him has never wavered no matter how hard the times were, she knew that God would see her thru. Many times in the following years her faith would be tested and tried, but she was always true to Him and felt that no matter what, He would never let her down. In her eyes he never did and her faith in Him never wavered.

It is now late 1992 and she has seen first, the passing of her oldest brother, then a few months later her mother. 1983 saw the passing of her next youngest brother and 1989 her next oldest. 1990 she was hit with the passing of her sister and her faith in God has seen her thru it all, the nursing of her next youngest brother for five years and the care of her dying sister for seven months. Now once again she is to face the loss of a husband, after taking care of him for twenty five years, the last two the hardest as he was confined to a nursing facility as she watched the man she had married as his mind deteriorated due to the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. Again she is alone, but thank God there are no children to provide for this time as all her children are grown. Again, her faith in God pulls her thru.

It is now spring 1994 and she is to face her own mortality as she undergoes triple bypass surgery. She made it! God has seen her thru another trying time. Life goes on.

It is now 1995 and her brother is dead, he has lived with her for several years and they are very close. She is again devastated; again her faith in God never wavers. There are only three of them left now, her, the youngest brother and the third oldest brother. She thinks, now, we are all we have left and tries to forge the close relationship with her family that she has always longed for, but it is not to be. The gulf that separates them would not be crossed, she has never known just what it was, but it has always been there. It is fall 1998 and now there are just two left, the youngest brother and herself and still that gulf is there. Many times she has tried to breach it, only to be rebuffed, but her faith in God has never wavered.

Several more trips to the hospital, several more surgeries and yet she perseveres. It is now the year 2001, she never thought that she would live this long. She is weary and her spirit is tired, but God will get her thru it this time as well, after all in her whole life He has been her the one constant. Her companion and guide.

The lady in this story is my mother whom I love dearly. Her life has been hard and just when you would think that life would reward her for her faith in God, her true spirit, she gets knocked down once again. But she will pull thru this as well as her faith in God has never wavered. The trials of her life have been many, and the rewards here on earth few, based on that, I have to believe that she is destined to live in the best that Heaven has to offer when her time to depart this earth comes. She has lived thru the ravages of poverty, the death of two husbands, her parents, most of her siblings, the majority of her friends and the desertion of several of her children, the uncaring attitude of her grandchildren, and most of her great grandchildren she never really knew and some she never even met, through all of this, her faith never wavered and yet still, life goes on.