My mother was a quiet, beautiful woman who loved God more than anything. She taught us about love, kindness, giving to others and sharing. All 12 of us kids attended the little Methodist church down the road every time its doors were open.
When I was 13, my sister took me in to live with her and her husband. She told me that I didn’t have to go to church anymore, and at the time I thought that was great.
Not many months had passed, however, before I knew in my heart I needed to go to church. So I asked my friend Janice if I could go with her family. She said yes, and I started attending Highview Baptist in 1951.
About a year went by. My Sunday school class was planning a skating party at our favorite skating rink. The following Sunday, as I was walking down the hall to class, I looked up to see the most handsome young man watching me. He was in the boys’ class. I smiled at him, and he smiled at me as I ducked into my classroom.
After Sunday school, Janice and I went into church and sat down on the front pew. The boys’ class filed into the pew behind us, and he was there.
I received a call the next day. How he got my number, I don’t know, but it was Lee, the handsome young man. He asked if I would go to the skating party with him. He couldn’t skate—but it didn’t matter, because I had fallen for him the first time I saw him.
COUNTRY MAGAZINEWe dated for a year, went to church every Sunday and always held hands. And then we were married on October 23, 1953.
Four years after marriage we had twin girls, four years later another girl, and later a boy. We adopted another son in 1982.
When I was about 10, I prayed, “God, please don’t let me get married, and if I have to, you pick him out; I don’t want to.” I know that He did!
I never knew you could hold so much love in your heart for God, a husband, five children, 13 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Lee and I have been married over 60 years. We still attend Highview Baptist Church. And we hold hands every Sunday.
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