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During the summers when the other children were out of school, I got to spend some time with them and my father. My father stopped to see me every night on his way home from work when I wasn't with him. My father died November 8,1946, when I was two years old.
We lived in Helper, Utah until I was five years old. Then my father, as I lovingly called Ray, got transferred to Salina. He was a railroad engineer for the D & R G W Raiload. We moved to the little town of Vermillion. There were 28 houses!
I wasn't a very healthy child, I had asthma and couldn't do a lot of things other children could do, but I was a happy, and sometimes ornery, child. I had a nasty temper when I was younger, but have learned to control it over the years. I had an older brother Ray Dee, and three younger sisters, Phyllis, LaRayne, and LaRae. We had some great times together, especially on family vacations.
I went to Sigurd Elementary School. It was a three-room-school with two grades in each room. Sigurd was two miles from Vermillion. Mom was our bus driver. There were only a few of us and our school bus was the family station wagon. Mom was also our school cook. I loved grade school. We went to school with Navajo Indians and they were some of my closest friends. They are such a beautiful people and I enjoyed learning about their culture.
I attended Richfield Junior and Senior High Schools. I made a lot of friends and we had a lot of slumber parties, and did all the usual high school age activities. I especially liked the sports, even though I could never play them. I was wrestling statistician my senior year. It was, and still is, my favorite high school sport. I was on the German Team and we placed fourth in a competition held at Brigham Young University my senior year. I was also on the high school shorthand team my junior and senior years. We traveled to different schools for meets and placed second my senior year at the state meet held at Snow College.
I graduated from high school in 1962 and went onto Steven Henager's College of Business in Salt Lake City. I enjoyed college and being on my own for the first time. I did a lot of things that I hadn't been able to do in a small town like shopping for hours, and going to concerts to see stars I'd only heard of, but never dreamed I'd see. I graduated from a two-year-course in one year because my high school credits counted.
While in college I met a handsome soldier from West Virginia, Ivan Richard (Dick) Blake. We were married June 29th, 1962, one week after I graduated from college. We were married in my parent’s home in Vermillion. We had no honeymoon because he had to be back at base on Monday. I went to stay with my sister Joan and her husband, Bob Day. I was there for two weeks, with Dick coming in on weekends.
Dick was transferred to Fort Lewis Army Base in Tacoma, Washington, on July 10, 1962. We lived in Olympia. It was a very hard time for me. When Dick wasn't on base he was working in a service station at night. I walked a lot and explored Olympia.
In December of 1963, I moved to Moundsville, West Virginia. We came home on leave and Dick had to go back to Washington until he got out of the army in February. I stayed with Dick's parents, Ivan Bernard and Hilda Marie Wellman Blake. They were wonderful to me. I could not have had better inlaws. They instantly made me a part of their family.
Dick came home in February and our first daughter, Cynthia Lucille, was born March 20,1964. She was a gorgeous baby and the joy of my life. Shortly after Cyndi was born we moved into an apartment in Glen Dale, W.V. I loved having my own home. Glen Dale was a small town and the people were very friendly. It didn't take me long to make some friends of my own.
Then eleven months after Cyndi was born, we were blessed with another daughter,. Anita Marie, was born February 20, 1965. She was a small, dark complexioned daughter and looked a lot like me. She was such a happy baby and never cried. Cyndi was a joy, she always minded and was so well behaved and then along came Anita. She was as stubborn and ornery as her mother had been.
In August of 1965 we moved into our first home. Dick had two brothers and four sisters. His parents had given each of their children a lot down the lane from them. We built a basement on it. Glen Dale was a nice little town, but I was thrilled to be back in the country again. I could plant my own garden and I finally had my very own home to decorate and do with as I pleased. When I planted my first garden, I dug my irrigation ditches and had it all ready to plant. Dick's dad had gone to town to buy my seeds and plants. When he came back he asked me what all the little ditches were for. I told him they were my irrigation ditches. He lovingly put his arm around me and told me we'd have to go back to town and buy a pump to pump the water up from the pond! I'd never dreamed you didn't have to irrigate! He teased me about my first garden until the day he died.
On September 10, 1968, we were again blessed. This time with a 10 lb. 1 oz. son. We named him, Richard Shayne. I had always wanted a little brother and never got one, now I had a beautiful son. The girls loved their little brother. My kids and I had a lot of fun together The doctors told me I would never have another child and I was a little upset because I wanted a large family like my parents had.
Dick loved horses and we started buying horses and going to horse shows. He was a coal miner. I loved the horse shows. They are some of my fondest memories. I really enjoyed being stable boy and cleaning and grooming them. I even learned to ride one! Then on January 1, 1973, the Lord saw fit to send us a little miracle. Our fourth child, Katrina Sue, was born. She was as ornery as her sister and mother, and she got her mother's temper as well.
I loved my children and we did everything together. I very seldom went anywhere where I couldn't take them with me. They were, and still are, the love of my life.
In August of 1977, we bought a 60 acre farm in Cameron, WV. It had a large old farmhouse that was built in the late 1880's. It still had the original woodwork in it. Some of my happiest moments were spent on this farm. We started buying quarter horses and went to a lot of quarter horse shows. Most of the farm work fell to me as Dick worked long hours. He was a boss in the mine by this time.
Then my marriage started falling apart. Dick didn't have time to take the kids anywhere. Every weekend he had off was spent at horse shows. I loved them, but the kids wanted to go to Sea World, Disneyland, amusement parks, and do the things kids like to do. But Dick was very selfish and did what he wanted. In the thirty years we were married he took me home a total of twice. The kids loved the vacations and have very fond memories of the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. They still talk about it.
Our children attended Cameron Elementary and High School. Cyndi graduated in 1982 and Anita in 1983. Rick was a wrestler on both the junior and senior high teams until his junior year. He graduated in 1968. I took a lot of wrestling pictures and started going to the basketball and football games and taking pictures of the kids and giving them to them. There were a lot of underprivileged kids whose parents couldn't afford a lot or didn't support them. I loved giving them the pictures just to let them know someone cared. Because of my pictures, the high school offered me the job of sports and extracurricular photographer for their yearbook. How I loved this job. I enjoy working with teenagers and this gave me the chance to spend a lot of time with them. Cameron High School is grades 7-12 so there were a lot of sports to cover. I covered all home events and a lot of away from home as well. Here I was riding a school bus again.
I traveled with the teams to state tournaments, and wrestling was my favorite. I ended up doing wrestling pictures for around 12 or 13 high schools. Our wrestling team was state champions three years in row. I also went to Orlando, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with the band when they went there to compete. The kids all fought over who was going to get me as their chaperone. I didn't yell at them as some of the others did. I let them be teenagers and enjoy themselves, but they all knew that they had to behave with me.
As the school kids got older, they started asking me to do their senior pictures and then wedding pictures. I held my year book position until 1991 when Katrina graduated. I still did the wrestling pictures for the team, however, during the following winter but no longer worked for the year book. I still do some photography, but not as much as I used to because I no longer have the time.
Dick did take us on one other family vacation. Cyndi married Doug Blake in April of 1984. Doug was a construction worker and they moved to Florida and then to Myrtle Beach. They had an adorable son, Troy. Anita was living with Ronald Ross and had a gorgeous daughter, Jennifer, by this time. In June of 1986, Dick, Rick, Katrina and I went to Myrtle Beach to see Doug and Cyndi. It was really hot and we spent a lot of time at the Ocean. We were supposed to stay a week, but after four days Dick decided he wanted to come home. Cyndi was very hurt by this. I was quite upset also. I missed my daughter and grandson and wanted to spend more time with them. Rick stayed with them and Cyndi got him a job where she was working. Now three of my little brood are out of the nest.
Katrina started to West Virginia University in the fall of 1991. In May of 1992, I left Dick and moved to Moundsville. It wasn't as hard for me to give him up as it was my high school kids. I really loved those kids. My children and the Lord were my greatest source of strength during this difficult transition. I could not have survived without their love and support. In the fall of 1963 I went back to school. I went to West Virginia Northern Community College. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I worked full-time as a waitress, part time as a transcriptionist, and went to school full-time. In 1996, I graduated with highest honors and received my Associates Degree in Office Technology. I was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa (National Honor Society) and was elected secretary my final year. I was inducted into Who's Who Among Junior College Students, won a scholarship my second year, and made the Dean's or President's List every semester. I graduated with a 3.85 OPA and was fifth in a class of 309.
I am now a bookkeeper/secretary for a large linen company in Wheeling, W.V. I also work part-time as a waitress in a local country club. I like waitressing best because I like dealing with people.
I belong to a singles group in Wheeling and we do a lot of things together. We have dances, bowl on a league, play miniature golf, volleyball, ride bikes, go to concerts, and walk, to name a few. We also have a stake singles group with the church and we do a lot of both fun and spiritual things together. We go camping, canoeing, on hiking trips, have video and game nights, and go to singles conferences together. We've been to Toronto, Canada, to the temple and to see "Phantom of the Opera". We go to Washington, D.C. to the temple a few times a year. We have both a potluck dinner/fireside and an activity once a month. I really look forward to the stake singles activities because it is with people of my own kind and they help keep me centered and increase my faith in the Lord.
In March of 1998, the Lord sent me a very special blessing. My daughter, Anita, rolled a big farm tractor and lost a leg. The Lord heard and answered my prayers, and a lot of others prayers, during her days in intensive care and spared her life. She has been a true inspiration to a lot of people. She has never felt sorry for herself, and with the help of a priesthood blessing and a lot of grit, she has accepted the cross the Lord gave her to bear. She has a new leg and can do everything she could do before but dance and ride a bike, and she's working on those.
Cyndi and Doug have Troy, now aged 15, and Taucia, aged 1. They now live here again. Doug owns his own trucking business and Cyndi went back to school at age 28 and became a nurse.
Anita and Ronnie had Jennifer, now aged 15, and Christopher, aged 13. She Married Harold Rush and has Calen, aged 9, and Shyan, aged 7. Harold works for a tractor dealership. Anita was secretary of a sewing company until her accident.
Rick was married to Sherry McFadden for nine years and had a stepdaughter, Heidi, aged 21, and adopted a foster son, Mark, aged 18. Rick is now married to Shelly Workman and has two stepdaughters, Miranda, aged 7, and Megan, aged 3. Rick owned his own car repair business for several years. He is now maintenance foreman at the same company I work for.
Katrina graduated from WVU School of Nursing with honors one week before I graduated and she is married to Dannie Ruza and has a stepson, Dannie Jo, aged 8, and a daughter, Ashley, aged 4 months. Dannie and Katrina own their own car repair and parts business and Katrina is a registered nurse in the labor/delivery department at Wheeling Hospital.
My children and grandchildren are my life. My greatest joy is spending time with them. We do a lot of things together. Since they never got to do fun things as children, I want to make sure that their children can enjoy life a little more than they did. Once a year we get together and spend the weekend together. One year we rented a cabin in a ski resort, we went to Columbus, Ohio, to the Zoo and Ohio State Fair, we went to Storybook Forest and Idlewild Amusement park, and last year we went to Sea World. We've done a lot of fun family things over the seven years I've been divorced. We spend every holiday together.
I also take one of my grandchildren on vacation with me each year. Jennifer and I flew home to Utah for two weeks. Cathaleen, Joan, Renee, Geri, Jennifer and I spent four fabulous days together in California. It is the first time we five sisters had all been together at the same time since our father's funeral 52 years earlier. We had a wonderful time. We went to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, the ocean, and Presidents Nixon's Library.
The next summer Christopher and I flew to Memphis to visit my brother Ray Dee for a week. Mom and Dad Amtracked in. We had a lot of fun. Christopher and I loved Graceland, the Memphis Zoo, Casey Jones Museum, and some other museums.
Last summer Troy and I flew to Utah for two weeks. Mom, Troy, and I visited the canyons. We went to Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, and Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Since Christopher only got one week with grandma, he gets to go with me again this summer. He has his grandmother’s love of history and wants to go to Washington, D.C. He wants to see the Smithsonian Museums, the monuments and White House. I love these vacations with my grandchildren because I get to spend time alone with each of them.
If nothing else, the divorce brought me closer to the Lord and closer to my family, and has brought my children closer to each other. The Lord has truly blessed me.