Leaving this beautiful farm we all worked our budd's off for, Why? the question would linger around in my head, Why would we leave a place we worked so hard for and leave all my best friends.?
It didn't seem smart or even right to me at the time, but it didn't matter so much about what I wanted rather then what Dad decides is best for us, I guess I didn't fully get the idea for moving other then its a new settlement in Ky. and usually there's more peace amongst people like that, We did have some church issues going on in Tn. so i guess moving does make sense, HuH?
That's the norm when people don't get along they would just move to get away from it, thinking it will be better at the other end. My dad being a preacher, it was kinda nice to think they would perhaps appreciate him more in a 15 family settlement where they actually need him,
So we continue with Ura getting married in the fall and the following spring we would move which ended up being first part of Feb.
A dreadful event of our moving auction day, a huge ice storm appeared and it was a miserable time to be moving, none of us kids really wanted to move because of all the friends we already had in Tenn.
We were leaving all our well known cousins and all the things we've ever known, my last view of my very best friend and cousin Annie was from the living room window and her sitting on their buggy ready to leave for her home, we were only 3 weeks apart in age and always besties, I didn't see her for a few years after we moved and would always write letters back an forth, She got married and i wasn't able to go to her wedding and only seen her once since which didn't end up very exciting but i'll talk more about that later.
Ura and his wife Rachel stayed living in Tenn. So that left only 6 of us kids left to move with our parents, and we had to build and start all over again which was actually rather fun but so very exhausting!!
Dad and 15 year old brother Jacob took a trip to Ky. to have a frolic to build a shop to live in for the time being.
There was an old barn there which was falling, A big good condition tobacco barn, and a few old riggidy shacks,
Mom and us 3 older girls started baking cookies, candy, bread and pies and take to town to sell by the road side for an income to our family, we would usually sell about 300.00 worth and that was our main income while building a house and barn, Dad also had beef cattle on the field that we would sell when it was the right time, which also meant we were raising corn and hay for the winter,
Jacob being the only grown brother meant that one of us girls would always help him in the fields or with chores, i always liked outside work better than in the house except when it came to working in the hot sun, i would take a team of 3 big horses and hitch them onto the plow and enjoy the ride while they seemed to know exactly what to do and i'd have time dreaming about life, such as how it would be if I'd be 17 already going to the singings, who would i get married to? not many boy options available, I figured i'd be getting an out of stater somewhere but had no idea how it would ever come to pass,
I also became close friends with yet another cousin who had moved in the area before us, her name was Annie also, we were about a year apart in age but we hung out together whenever we had a chance, but as things in the church started getting sticky about some things in Ohio of a boy wanting to be forgiven of a sin he committed and the bishop wasn't ready to receive it, there became arguements about it and caused a split amongst the Swartzentruber church and Annie's parents decided it be best if they move to Ohio and side with the group that the rest of us in Ky. didn't,
But that's not the hard part, Annie had been having weak spells before they were packing for moving, and they took her to a Dr. to find out what was going on and found out she has leukemia, she was 16 by now and made the decision not to do medical treatment for it, we went to help them move while Annie was so weak she stayed in bed and someone was sitting by her side all the time,
by the end of March in 1995 if I remember right, we got the call that she passed away and my parents let me travel with someone by greyhound to be at her funeral, i really didn't want to live anymore either, life just looked dark and painful, who cares about a future anymore!! ............
....to be continued
