I've always heard..."Write what you know"......I've wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I used to make up stories and I would sit and type page after page, I was making myself my main character and writing about what I wanted to do. I would meet the awesome guy, fall in love and live happily ever after...........WELL...it took me about 30 years, but I fell in love with the awesome guy....we got married and are living happily ever after!! I guess I am a slow learner, huh?? haha I'll get on with my love story later....but now, it's all about me!! haha
I was born on Aug. 26, 1958. I was the fourth daughter and the last child in my family. My three older sisters were 11, 9 and 7 when I was born....they were born when my parents were still very young. My parents married on my Mama's 16th birthday (my Daddy was 18)....the following year, my sister Brenda was born.....my Mama was still just 16....she turned 17 that November after my sister was born in August....2 years later Becky came along....then 2 more years and they had Linda. My Mama was barely in her twenties and she had 3 little girls....no car and my Daddy worked nights and slept during the day. They lived outside Hickory, NC in "Longview", NC....so named because there is such a "long" view from here. You can actually see Grandfather Mountain on a clear day.........almost 40 miles away! I was born when we lived in Longview, but we moved when I around 2 yrs. old.....but now I am 58 and I live in Longview again! Mark, (the awesome guy I married) has actually lived in Longview all his life......just across the railroad tracks from where we lived!! When we got married, I moved to his house and we live beside his parents who live in the house where Mark grew up!! Is that a coincidence or what??
My Mother died 3 years ago.....June 3, 2013......I still remember Daddy calling me to tell me she had died....in her sleep at the Lutheran Home where she had been living for several years. Jeremy was home from college. Becky, Linda and I met Daddy at the Lutheran Home to be with her before the funeral home came. But I'm really getting ahead of myself....
When I was born as I said earlier, Brenda was 11, Becky was 9 and Linda was 7.......Brenda tells me now when we talk that I was the most anticipated baby that ever was......I never knew that until after Mama died. Brenda talks about when they grew up and then when I came along.....Mama was 28 and Daddy was 30.....it was better times then....or maybe not such a stuggle. I don't remember living in Longview, I just remember the house we moved to in Hickory where Daddy still lives today. The first real memory I have of that house was a birthday party, I think I was 5 and I had a doll cake.
I remember all four of the girls slept in one room......we had bunk beds....Linda and Becky on top....me and Brenda on the bottom. Eventually, the "den" was turned into a bedroom and Becky and Linda moved out of our room and the TV moved into the living room.
