JanetYates.txt

-n -n -n >> Testing, one, two. >> We're right on the top. Go ahead and say something about this. >> Just about anything? >> Yep, it's weren't a good one. I'll move a little bit. >> Okay. >> Now, this tape is being done for the Kentucky Historical Society, April 15th, 515 Eastern Standard Time. We're in Grundy, Virginia. >> Well, what's the fish? Is this Grundy or? >> Well, it's Russell Prider. We call it Prider, but it's just. >> Russell Prider or known locally as Prider. We'll be interviewing Janet Yates here in Prider. [LAUGH] >> Okay, now we can get dinner. The three broad questions that I asked are very simply. And the first one, of course, won't apply to you. What it was like growing up in the cold fields, what it's like now, and what you think it's gonna be like in the future. If you would tell us where you're from, how you got here, but first before we do that, give us your grandfather and grandmother on both sides of family if you remember them and your parents' names and where they're from and all that. >> Okay, on my mother's side, my grandparents were with Henry and Mary Jane Agnew. And my grandfather was originally from West Virginia and my grandmother is from Kansas City, Kansas. My other grandparents on my dad's side was Anthony Strick and Mary Strick. Both of them were originally from Kansas City, Kansas. My parents are George and Louise Strick from Kansas City, Kansas. >> Okay, and you were born in Kansas City? >> I was born in Kansas City and I was raised in Kansas City. And it was in, possibly, I think, I can only remember the exact year, but it was around '65 or '66 that we moved to Arlington, Virginia. >> No parents? >> Yeah, my parents moved there and at the time, I was still living with my parents and we, I went to the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center and that's where I met my husband. Yeah, I met my husband, Roy, and there I took business training and he was taking upholstery training. >> Okay, well, so y'all are perfect match, and you do the business in that he does the upholstery. >> It worked out real well that way. >> In the business. >> Yeah. >> Now let me ask you this. What kind of business was your father in? >> My father, it was a negotiator for the communication workers of America, the Telephone Telegraph Union. >> Mm-hm, so he started out and he lived and worked in Kansas City. Was he a telephone repairman? >> He started out working for the telephone company, he climbed the poles. And he got into the union and got into working with that. He was, became a local president and from there, he went up to become a, the president of the district in Washington, over five states. He was a local president. >> So that's why you moved to Arlington? >> Yeah, he was transferred there from Kansas City to Washington. >> And you grew up in, so did you grow up in Kansas City? >> Yes, I grew up in Kansas City, right in the heart of the city there. >> What was it like growing up in Kansas? Did you like it or? >> Yeah, well. >> I've always thought it was a lovely city. I've been there two or three times. >> I've always been kind of a person that wherever I am, I've been able to find friends and make friends and been happy wherever I am. During the time I've grown up, my dad was different summers in different areas. One summer we were in Syracuse, New York for the summer. Another summer we was in Baltimore. >> Mm-hm, because of his job. >> Because of his job. They would send him on campaigns to organize some of the different telephone companies. >> Locals in different places. >> Uh-huh. So when he would be there, he would send, we'd go for the summer and stay as long as. >> Let's see, did you grow up in the 60s? >> In the 50s. >> Did you graduate from high school? >> I graduated from high school in '61. >> Mm-hm. >> And then the summer, the fall of '61 is when I became ill when this disease struck me. >> What disease was it that you? >> It's a very rare disease. It's called dermatomyocytus. And at the time it was very rare that they didn't know that much about it. >> Was it a muscular thing? >> It was, it's a muscular and a skin disease, a combination, and it affects the muscles where it, they become drawn and very weak. >> Mm-hm. >> And at the time. >> Kind of in a way like Luke Erick's disease, only not, only not fatal? >> Uh, similar. >> Well, similar. It's more like muscular dystrophy. And I had got to the place where I was almost like a vegetable just totally. And I had got down to like 113 pounds. >> So you graduated from high school in '61? >> In '61. >> And how did, and when did the disease strike you? >> In the fall of '61. >> Fall of like August or September. Had you planned on going to college or? >> No, I was in the process of going to a cosmetology school. My dad wanted me to go to college, but I didn't want to do that. >> You wanted to do, wanted to do hair. >> Yeah, I thought I did. I did, after I got into it, I wasn't really sure about that. But you know how it is when you're just out of high school, you're not real, sometimes you're not really sure what you want to do. >> You can try four or five times. >> Yeah. But I knew I definitely didn't want to go to college. I'd had enough of school. >> Mm-hm. Yeah. But you went through, it's unusual that, you know, most people, or not most people, but a lot of people who have disabling conditions are, they strike them early on. And they, but it's unusual in the sense that you, you had a very normal childhood. >> Yeah. >> And junior high and high school. And then this disease struck. And what were your, what were your first symptoms? Did you just start getting weak? >> Yeah, I started getting weak and like if I'd get down and I couldn't get up. >> Mm-hm. >> And I couldn't bend over. I started drawing. My muscles would be real tight. >> Mm-hm. >> And then the weakness went with it. >> Mm-hm. >> And I got so that I'd have to be helped to get up in order to walk. >> You could progress that way real quickly. >> Very quickly. It was, well, I'm so ironic, but I'm a faith person, as you might find out, as we're going along. But I believe the Lord has plans for each individual's life and that I was, got to the place where I had to use a wheelchair in April of '62. I got down to that point. And April 4th, 1962 is when my husband was injured in a mining accident. >> Did it rock fall on you? >> Uh-huh. >> Now, his injury, as I understand it, you know, most people have the, the vision of, of these terrible coal mine disasters where 200 people are hurt and injured or killed. Most of the injuries, as I understand it, are like this. >> I'm an individual. >> Where one or two people get caught in a, in a ceiling fall. >> Yeah. >> And, and either, either get their legs or their arms injured or their back. >> That's what happened with him. He got the, rock fell on him and, and it was an individual that nobody else was hurt in. >> Mm-hm. >> And he was paralyzed and. >> That was in '62. >> How long had he been working in the mines when that happened? >> Two years. >> Just two years. Was it a union mine? >> Yeah. >> Not a union mine. >> Mm-hm. >> So, in '60, in '62, was that when you moved to Washington, D.C. with your folks? >> No, no. I was in Staten, Kansas, we were there until, I believe it was '66 is when we, what year was Kennedy killed in? >> '63. >> '63, well then it was '64, '65, because there's, we were still back there when he died. >> How did your, how did your folks deal with you getting sick? Or, oh, and brothers and sisters, how many brothers and sisters do you have? >> I have two sisters. >> Mm-hm. >> And their names are? >> My oldest sister is Mary, and she has five children, five girls, and my other sister is Gail, and she has three children. >> And how did your, were your, were your sisters at home when this happened? >> Yeah, they're both younger than I am. >> How did, how did your mom and dad and your sisters and everybody react to all this? Was it? >> Well, at the time, my oldest sister, she was a junior in high school, and my other sister, she's ten years younger than I am, so she was just. >> Young. >> Young, she was just like in the second, third grade when this happened to me. But, my youngest sister and I became very, very close because she was there all the time with me, and when she got in high school, that, that time she got in high school was when we moved to Virginia. >> Mm-hm. >> And that's when we really got close. She was great to help, anything I needed. And she was the type of a person that a lot of times the kids would be going out or doing things, and she would stay to be with me so mom and dad could take a night out, which they very, very seldom did. My parents were very supportive during the time of my illness, and where I got to the place where, like I said, I could do nothing for myself. >> Mm-hm. >> I was just like a vegetable. I had to be fed, fed, dressed, everything, you know. >> And this disease that you have, is it, is it ordinarily fatal, or does it? >> Ordinarily. >> Ordinarily it is. So, so the fact even that you're alive, in and of itself was more or less miraculous. And that you have gotten back as good. Now, is it like arrested now, or do you still have it? >> Yeah, no, it's been arrested for some, I don't know, I guess about 25 years. I haven't had to take any medication or anything. >> Okay, well there was treatment for it then. They could not really. >> Not really. They guessed. >> Yeah. >> You know, it was something very rare, and they didn't really know. They tried different therapy treatments, different medical treatments, you know. But they didn't really know anything about it. >> Right, so not many people get it. >> Not at the time. >> And those that did get it. >> There's more now, but at the time there was very few cases even known. >> And those that did get it died, so it was unusual in that they had you, you were still alive. >> Yeah. >> And that. >> Yeah, they, they said probably two years at the most when I first contacted it, you know. >> Huh. >> So, so you're both your mother and your father and your older sister, they were having to deal with the fact at that time that as for all practical purposes and for what the doctors were saying, that probably you were going to die. >> Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know it at the time. And what, just a few years ago when my mom condemned me one year and we got to talking about it. And she said she just dreaded the phone to ring because she just knew, you know, that. >> They called, said you were dead. >> They were going to call. >> Yeah. >> And uh. >> Uh. >> That's true. >> I didn't, I had no idea I was going to die. I told her I said, well I knew I wasn't going to die, mom. She said, well I wish you told me that. [Laughs] I mean, I didn't feel, I didn't sense that uh, that I was going to die. I don't think that I was going to live a long time. >> It's really funny because there, there are not many people that can relate to the situation that you're, that you're in now with your wheelchair. I had leukemia uh, in 1989. And when I came out of Vanderbilt, I spent uh, about several weeks in a wheelchair. Everywhere I went, I was so weak I couldn't walk. And uh, I have been in remission now for four years. But I had that same feeling that you did that I knew I could die. But I didn't think I was going to. >> Uh-uh. I, I didn't sense that. >> Yeah. >> I, I believe the Lord gives you that. >> That knowledge. >> That knowledge that when it's time, you're gonna, I think you're gonna know it. I think you've got a sense about it that it's your time. I've talked with other people and uh, that have had sicknesses and diseases and, and uh, ones that have died that they, they knew they were in the process of dying. They, they've always gotten an ant right now that she has cancer. And uh, she knows that her days are just a few more that she's, she's trying to get everything taken care of and she's giving things away and she knows she's dying. >> Mm-hmm. >> Yeah, it's really funny. I didn't, but I was like you, I knew I didn't have that sense of, even though I was terribly sick and, and a bump on the head could have killed me. >> Yeah. >> You know, I could have hemorrhaged, I only had 300 platelets, you know, I had no blood. But I didn't, you know. >> We have a young man that we go to church with that he's got leukemia and. >> How's he doing? >> He's doing pretty good. >> Uh, what kinds you got? >> Uh, I don't know. He, he had to have a bone marrow transplant. >> Oh, so is it, did it take him? >> Well, it, it took to a certain degree. Now he's, it's been over two years now since he's had it. >> Mm-hmm. >> But he hasn't come back like they thought he would. >> He would. >> He, he has a lot of problems and stuff with it. >> Does he have that graft versus host disease that they get some? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But it's not killed. Well, if he's lived two years with it, he'll eventually. >> Uh, he's does better than what he did. But he's really had a rough battle with. >> How old is he? >> He's in his, I'd say Dave's in his late 30s, maybe early 40s. >> Okay, I was 40. Well, that's where did he go to, where did they treat him? >> Um, Richmond. >> Mm-hmm. >> Richmond. >> That's where people go here when they get the Vanderbilt. There were people from all over when I was there. >> Yeah. >> Well, and then you went, okay, back to your story. >> [LAUGH] >> But we went on to, you, you were an RMS. >> You went to Arlington and you went to, what was the name of the place? >> Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. >> And that's where you met Roy. >> Uh-huh. >> And he had just been, what was his attitude like? >> Oh, he had a bad attitude. >> [LAUGH] Did you have to straighten him out? >> Uh-huh. >> What did you- >> I thought I had to straighten, I mean, I thought I was the one that was straightening him out. >> Uh-huh. >> But it wasn't me at all. >> Really? >> It was that one upstairs. >> [LAUGH] >> That, I think that was the biggest thing that, that over the years that I have found, that I have had to cope with is my pride. It's not so much the disease or anything else. It's my pride. I had, when I first got sick, it was like, I was a very strong young person and I was ready to conquer the world and I knew I could do anything I wanted to do. You know, how 18 year olds just at high school. >> It was like God kind of said, well, I'm gonna show you. >> Yeah, it's like, now wait a minute here. All of a sudden, you're knocked down to where you have to be totally weighted on and you talk about really having to let your pride drop. And then several years ago, I thought, well, you know, I've really come a long way. People bragged about me, you know, how well I've accepted what I come through and how good I've been doing and all this. And I come to realize that I weren't doing the things that I'm aware of. [LAUGH] And that just hit me, you know. And that is a very humbling experience when you come to realize that your whole life, God has been there. People have been praying for you and the Lord has been helping you through situations. You ain't been doing anything, you know. And I think that's where my biggest problem has been, was being with my pride to have to allow people to do for me and to accept that. And it still, it still gets me sometimes, you know, I have to ask people to take me places and things like that. And it can be very humbling. >> So you get a pride lesson every now and then. >> Oh yeah, quite often. [LAUGH] >> And well, you know, in a way, it's funny, the same situation and you can get different things from it. Like my situation was exactly the opposite. I had depended on everybody all my life. And now I was sick and the only one that could get me well was me. I mean, I had to work at it. >> Yeah. >> And of course, God helped me. But I mean, I had to say, nobody can do this for me. I've got to do it for myself. And so it gave me self-confidence that I never had. It was like, well, if I can survive this, I can do anything. [LAUGH] You know, there's nothing that can hold me back now. >> Well, I think another thing, I think the basic thing that helped me through everything was the love and support of my family. And even the doctors were amazed because what I had and the medications that they had me on were very depressive, but I never became depressed. And people always ask me, well, why do you think that you didn't become depressed? Because I saw other people in the hospital and when their family would come in, they was, you know, they would, oh, oh, oh, you know, oh, poor old me. And I saw what it did to their families. And I knew my family was already going through a battle of having to deal with my disease and me being in the hospital. I was in hospital for seven months. And I knew they were having to deal with that. And during that time, my mother was at the hospital every day. And not just my family, but we had a wonderful neighborhood that we lived in. And the neighbors would come and they would come to the hospital. Some of the men would come with my dad and we'd sit and play cards all evening. You know, different things like that. Anything that kept me off, they'd bring puzzles and we'd work puzzles together. Anything that kept me occupied and the support, I believe is what, that special love, that special support that I had over the years. And then, of course, when I met Roy, that was a different type of love and a different type of support. And that love that I shared with him caused me to want to do more, to be more on my own, to be, to get back to the place where I once was, on my own, you know, I could do whatever I wanted to do. Because I had sort of slipped into the place of becoming dependent on people and the attitude. Well, I'm like this, so what, you know, just let people wait on me. For the rest of my life, yeah. And then when I met him and through his love and sharing life with him, then I got to the place where I wanted to do for myself and so I started working harder at it. What was, you said when he got there, he had a bad attitude. How long were you all there together at the center together? About a year. Oh, for a long, quite a while. Yeah. Going through therapy and personal thing and another. Well, he was taking, he was taking post-retraining. And I was taking business management training. Business management and we were also taking therapy. What attractions you took? I didn't like him at first. I tried to get away from him. Really? How come? I don't know. I really don't know. I thought about it and don't really know why, but he would come around and I'd go the other direction. And I really don't know why. But then, well, let me add, how long after you all met each other did you get married? Um, it's about three years. After you, well, now when he got out of a post-retraining, did he come back here? Yeah. So did, and you stayed in Washington? Yeah, I stayed in Arlington. And then I came up here and I stayed with his mother for about a year and a half. And she's a wonderful, supportive lady too. I mean, I've had love and support all through my life. And she's just a marvelous, special lady. And I stayed with her until we and I could get our house built and so we could get things, kind of hard to court and get things worked out. I was going to ask you, how was your, what was it, it had to, well, I'm not going to say it had to be, was it a different kind of court shift than you imagined or, what was it like? Well, mostly when we were at the center, you know, it was just, you were always there, ever eating and together. I mean, after classes and everything, you were there, you could go, they had movies and they had different activities and stuff that you go to. So we were always together doing things at the center. Yeah. I'm sure that was a period of transition for you and getting used to your situation and you're realizing, hey, I'm going to get better, but I'm never going to be back like I was in a time of acceptance. How were you dealing with all that? You said you tried not to get too down and everything. But it had to be a very, but then on the other hand, you know, like, as I said, as I was saying, everybody think, well, you're so brave. It's like, well, what am I supposed to do? What? Because I don't sit around and follow my eyes out. Does that make me a hero? It doesn't help. It doesn't help situations. Well, you know what you went through and you know that there was times when you would be to yourself and you would be crying out to the Lord, you know, well, Lord, you know, help me with this. I just don't know. And I even came to the place where I said, Lord, just take me on out of here. I don't want to be a burden to my family. I don't want to be that because now when we were still back in Kansas, you felt like you were a burden. I felt like I was a burden to my family and I prayed that God would just take me out of and not let me be a burden to my family. And they would even have to get up at night. See, I couldn't even turn over in the bed by myself. And they would have to get up and turn me. And my dad gave me shots and it was, you know, it was like I was totally dependent on them. And I could see where it was. Where in there? It was where, especially my mother, it was really where in her down. She was trying to take care of me. She still had two other children to take care of and they were both in school and had activities to do with them and she was managing it all. So your mother and father are still alive? Yeah. And they still live and? My mother's, they separated a few years ago. My dad's in Delaware and my mom's still in Kansas. Getting back to what it was like, according to after you left the center, then you did what happened. Roy just joked aside, well, we're going to get married. We were talking one day, we were just talking and he said, he made the statement. He said, well, he said, I want to be your hands for you. And we talked about getting married and I told my parents was going, we didn't really talk a whole lot about it. I mean, it was just like, well, it was just automatically that that's what we were going to do. And we didn't really think about what we were getting into. Other than we've talked about since what we thought about it, we might have backed out. Because we didn't really talk a whole lot about it. We just. So when did you get married? In 71, in eight, well, a week from Sunday, we'll have our 23rd anniversary. So you went through about a 10 year period of sickness and rehabilitation. And so you're like 28 when you got married. Yeah, that's 28 when I got married. What was your wedding like? We were married in Roy's mother's living room, a friend of the family. He married us. My mom and my sister, one of my sister come down, my other sister at the time, she was married living in Kansas and she wasn't able to come. But we just had a very simple wedding and his mother's living room. I made my own wedding dress. Did y'all go on your honeymoon here, go off or? We didn't go anywhere. Just when we just stayed right here. Did let's see, what was it I was going to ask you? Oh, you mentioned the church. Where do y'all go to church? Coleman's United Methodist. Oh, so your Methodist, my wife and our family. Yeah. Roy, was it, is he a good church goer? Is he a? No, Roy has problems with his bounce and stuff, so he don't go anywhere. He never knows when. Right. So he just doesn't go. But he does, he is a believer and he is a supporter of the church. And he encourages me to go and do whatever I can. He just doesn't feel comfortable. He's not comfortable. He don't go, he don't go into any public place. When he goes to the doctor, they take him in the back door because if they, the doctor stand out when he goes in the front door and sits in the lobby, his blood pressure goes high. Because he doesn't like it. Well, he's very comfortable. He never knows when he's going to have a bounce event. Right. But it's just like if you took a dose of salt and went somewhere, you know. Matter of fact, again, you don't have to tell me because when I had all the chemotherapy. You know about that. Oh, it would just strike at a moment's notice and you had. He's like that all the time. There's, there's days when he has to change clothes maybe seven or eight times. And he's like that all the time. So that's why he won't go to church. That's a real problem. Yeah. Um. You know, got you decided immediately you've been doing this for a long time. Did this, did I guess was to the state of Virginia train him or train you or I mean, this Woodrow Wilson Center, was it, was it paid for by the state of Virginia? His was my parents paid for part of mine because they were able to pay. Yeah. But then well now since he was injured in the mines, did the back then did it did the mines? Did they get a pension for being? He got, he got $167 every two weeks for eight years. And then after that, he was cut off. Okay. Why was he cut off? That's the compensation he received. And that's all he got. He got his compensation. That's all he got. Okay. Had he settled with him or? Back then there weren't a settlement. That's, they just told you what you got and that's what it was. And that's all, that's all. It was $10,000 and that was it. And when that $10,000 was drawn out, that was it. That was it. That's all you got. And so now, even though maybe the limits are higher and all that, there's no way he can reapply through all those kinds. Does he have any benefits? Went out for the UMW. Yeah. He's got his UMW card. He can has his entrance card. We couldn't make it. We didn't have that because his medicine is. Does he do lots of, do you take lots of medicine? I don't take any medicine. That's funny. You know, when I came out here, I said, "Would you take?" I said, "I don't take any medicine." You know, you're either well or you're dead. I don't, but he has with his kidneys and his diabetic. How old is he? He's 52. Well, now the diabetes, does that come from his family or does that come from the accident? That's lots of. Neither one. He had high blood pressure and he was taking medication for several years. And they believe what happened is he should have been taking potassium with these pills and it depleted all the potassium out of the system and it caused the diabetic reaction. Most of the time he doesn't have to take anything for if he watches what he eats. But occasionally it'll act up on him and it'll go up and it'll go down, up and down. It's up and down. How is his health in general? Not good. The last two years he's really, I've seen a great difference in his health go down. So you all have been doing this for quite some time? During the- Since 1970, he started, he's got a little shot up at his mother's that at the time we were staying up there and we built that and he worked up there for several years. And I used to help him. I used to do all the sewing and stuff. But then when he, we closed the carportion out there and he started working out there. Well, we just don't have the room out there, one thing, but he doesn't want me out there anyway. That's one way of keeping you up. Yeah. Just saying that ain't enough room. Yeah. Well, how's your health in general? Basically, I'm about as good of health as I've been for some time. I don't really have any major problems. Major health problems and your disease is arrested. Just getting old after a few years on you. I know that feeling. Well, what do you, now what's it been like? I guess let me ask you this. Even though you're not from the cold fields, you've lived here for the last 20 years. What has it been like as getting around in the cold fields as a handicap person? Is it, were things accessible to you? Oh, this area was terrible to try to get around then. To go, were there like very few places you could go? Very few places that you can go in this area. Which there's not really that much to go or to do in this area as far as that goes. But as far as having accessible places to go, they just don't have them. And if you do go anywhere, you can't stay very long because you can't get into the bathrooms and things, you know. So that's a handicap too. Do you drive? No, neither one of us drive. Roy can drive, but he doesn't. Or do you, how do you get around when you? I'm very fortunate that I have three ladies that I go to church with and they will take me anywhere I need to go, anytime I need to go. Whenever you hear whether it's about your church or the store. Then my mother-in-law, she drives too. You usually go out to get like groceries and stuff or do people bring them in? I go get my own groceries. I don't like to see anybody and never get what I want. I know the feeling. I go do my own shopping and things. Is there a particular store that you go to that is accessible? Yeah, I always go to Food City and then I go to Magic Mart. Yeah, I was in there. That looks like it would be a pretty... It's a great, that's my main store is Magic Mart. I can find anything I want there and I either need to go anywhere else. Yeah, they know you. They know me. And Food City, it's accessible. They've got, you know, but it's a newer building, you know. And so it's the Magic Mart. Yeah, it's about the codes. So let me ask you that. How do you feel that, do you feel like the new handicapped laws have made things better for you? For people that are wheelchair-bound and... Very definitely. It's made things better. You go different areas and things and you can find places that are accessible. Like if you go out to Abingdon or something, there's places out there where the bathrooms and the bath ramps and the doors, you know, everything is accessible. So it's helped a great deal. And I know when, before the law came into existence, we would travel from Kansas City to Arlington and back. On the road, you would find, it would be very difficult to find a place where you could get into the bathrooms. Or a lot of places had spits. You know, in a way, I never really thought about it. But in a way, you understand how black folks felt back when there was segregation, because they couldn't go to the bathroom, they couldn't go in the restrooms. And in a sense, it's the same kind of situation having to pick and choose and wonder whether you could create a lot of uncertainty and confusion and apprehension. Yeah, and you already got a problem instead. To begin with. You can't get something. The thing that always amazed me, the hardest place for a handicapped person is hospitals and doctor's offices. It is funny. They are. Now, here a couple years ago, I was in Abingdon Hospital overnight, just for some minor tests. And I couldn't, they had a bathroom that was supposed to be for the handicapped. There are no way. You could get in it. The way they had the bars and things. And you couldn't get up to that. Somebody that was handicapped, obviously had nothing to do with the elderly. That's right. And they had just renovated their hospital. Looking ahead in the future, say for instance, if Roy got to where he couldn't work, what would you, how would you get by? Well, we had a little bit of experience of that about eight or nine years ago. He was affected by a infection in his spine. And he got to the place where he could do nothing for himself. He could just barely, he had a fork like this. And he could just barely feed himself. I had to bathe him and dress him and even help him get in now bed. And we were on fixed income. Social security? No, we don't get social security. You don't get any social security? Neither one of you. I'm sure you would be eligible for it. You wouldn't, you're not eligible for it? He hadn't worked long enough to be eligible for it. And you had never worked. And I had never worked. That's hard to do. Isn't that amazing? And that, but we do, we do some SSI during that time, which at the time it was like $500 a month. That's how you draw. Well, you've got a house payment, you've got a vehicle payment, you've got electric bill, and you've got a telephone bill and your ear insurances. And you got to buy groceries with $500. Well, let me ask you again, if something were to happen to him, how would you get by? Could you? It would be very difficult. We've talked about it because we both really feel that Roy's health is leaving him and we don't really expect him to be around too many more years. We have to face facts, facts and facts. And we've talked about it. Probably what I would have to do would be to sell out and go back and stay with my sister or my mother. And your mother lives in Kansas City? Yeah, all my family lives in Kansas City. Still in downtown, still? They all live in Kansas. How would it, what would it be like going back again after all these years? Oh, well, it would be like starting all over again. You know, I would have to leave all my friends. I have wonderful friends up here. Most people don't, during the lifetime, I don't think they ever really accumulate any real friends. But I've got some real friends that, I mean, they're there thinking then. Well, let me ask you this. So you're saying then, if it weren't for a financial consideration, there's no way then that you would leave here and go back home? I really wouldn't want to go back home, but to. Well, in fact, two is that, that, where once I get laid down in bed, I can't get back up. I'm stuck. So Roy helps you in that regard? In that regard. So you've got, you can't live by yourself. The only way I could stay here is if I could find another woman that, you know, was by herself and needed a place and had her finances where we could split finances, you know, something like that. That would be a good, good arrangement. It would be the only thing, but it's difficult to find people like that that you could trust. Now, well, and not just that, let me ask you this. Do you, do you, people who aren't, who don't have a disability, they react differently to people who do. I know you've noticed that. Yeah. How do you feel about that? And how do you now, like when I first came, I was apprehensive, even though I've been, you know, wheelchair-bound and, but now that we've talked and visited, then I'm not. People approach you in a way sometimes, you have different reactions from different people. Some people will approach you with the, with the fact like, it's like, they see you in that wheelchair. And it's like, you don't have any sense about anything. You're just plumb out of it. And they really sort of approach you like, you can't hear hardly or you can't see hardly, or you don't have any mind, you're almost on the form of an idiot, you know, until they get acquainted. And then other people will approach you like, it's like they're afraid to get close to you. Like maybe it's catching. Well, yeah. Well, no, I think it's more on the, that they don't really know what to do. They just don't know how to do their thing. They want to do the right thing, but they don't know what the right thing is. They don't know how to really, how to approach you. And I know some of my best friends around their church, some of them, this one little young lady, she said, you know, she said, well, you first start coming in there. She says, I just didn't, well, they don't know how to take me either at a lot of times. Because I'm all joking and cutting up and stuff, you know, and they don't really know how to take you sometimes. And she said, I just really didn't know I was afraid I might hurt you or something. So I sort of stood back from you. And I see that all the time and over the years, you know, I've just got to the place. Well, you know, that's just the way it is. I feel sorry for people because they don't really understand. I don't hold it against anybody because I thought about it. You know, I thought, well, because I've been around, I mean, I have the same reaction to some people. I, you see people with a disability or something and you don't really know how they're going to accept you. Right. And so I can understand, you know, how they feel. But they, they just have a fear in them. And the, the unknown is always fearful to us. Yeah. Always worse. And so, yeah. Yeah. But how do you, I guess, um, I think we're about finished here, but one thing I'd like to do is get you to, to mention what do you see if you had one, if you could sum it all up, your whole life experience in one sentence or paragraph or whatever. What would you, what would you, and this is your chance to leave that with the world? What would you say? Um, What would you say? I guess the basic thing that I would like to get across to people is hang on to the Lord and he will help you through any situation that you go through. He can make it easier. You can hang on to the Lord and you can ask him what you want. He wants you to find out new situation and you can go through it a whole lot quicker. I would like to say to people, people look at, at people like Roy and I and they think, well, you know, you've been through so much. You, you've gone through extraordinary circumstances, but I don't feel that way. I look at people who are everyday ordinary housewives who go through so much. I have a, my younger sister has been through so much in her life. Everybody says that I am the strong one in the family. Where all she been through? She's had, she's lost the baby. She lost her first child in childbirth. Her oldest daughter, a couple years ago, they found out she had been molested by one of their best friends. She has her, the only boy in the family, he has some kind of rare, well it's not really a disease, but it's a dysfunction that causes him to be extremely hyper and she's had to deal with that. They've had to have him in counseling to try to handle that. She has a very rare blood disease and two years ago, she drove a school bus and two years ago, she had an injury to her shoulder and it's her right arm and she has no use of it and now it's affecting her left arm. When she was born, she was born with vertebrae missing and they said she would never even walk. Who is this now? My baby sister. So I can look, not just her, I see other people that have not obvious disabilities or problems that they have through their life and they have been great overcomers and but they're too, she's overcome through the health of the Lord. So you don't see yourself as a heroic figure? No, I don't. I don't. I was very surprised when she missed Hatfield Comet because she's she said, I think you have such interesting life and I said, oh yeah. In fact, I said it's kind of ironic. I told our preacher about it. It's kind of ironic because I've been going through a spell. That's why I thought, well, you know, Lord, I'm just like I'm going through my life, traveling through here and I'm not really accomplishing anything, doing anything, which I know I've been active in the church and different, different things. But I said, you know, I don't wonder if I've made any impression on anybody during my life. And I got this call from her and I said, well, you know, you must have impressed them by how they are on the way. Now, here's the key question. If you hadn't do it all over again, would you do it any differently? No, I don't think so. If you could have, if you could have not had that day happen in 1961, would you have rather gone off in another path and Well, I didn't really have any choice about what happened in 61. As far as my life, I think I've had a good life. I believe I have had an abundant life more than what I see. When I've talked about this quite a bit, I see people up on their feet. They don't know how to enjoy life. They don't enjoy the things around them. And that's one thing that we have had. We, we've been forced into it, but we have learned through the years to enjoy each day what you have today. And we, when I have adapted the attitude with each other, we try to treat each other each day like if I last stayed together. And I think that when a person comes to that place and you treat everybody like, "Hey, this is maybe the only opportunity I'm going to be able to share love with you, share the Lord with you, share the wonderful things that God has done for me." Then you've got a life. I mean, I may not have a lot of material things in this life, but the Lord has blessed me with abundance of peace and joy that I see people up on their feet. I was striving for more. They want more. And there really isn't any more that's going to make you happy. But God will give you in your life. And if you just trust in Him, that's all you need.