Beginnings...

In an earlier blog, I told how Jeanette and I became friends and now I want to tell about my early life.  My granddaughter, Erin, and Jeanette asked to do start there...so here goes.  My daddy was a minister and my mother was a homemaker and took care of the farm while my daddy preached.  First, I want to tell you about their meeting.  When my mother was almost 16, she visited my daddy's family church with a friend.  My daddy was sitting 2 seats in front of her and when he stood up and turned around...he said those were the prettiest blue eyes he had ever seen and he fell in love with her right then.  He rode his bicycle about 7 miles to her home when she had her 16th birthday party and that was the deal-sealing visit.  I do not know how he found out about the party, but am thankful he did and that God put them together.  Two years later on her 18th birthday, August 21, 1918, they were married.  She worked at the tobacco barn until noon, went to the house, got dressed and they were married about 3:00 I think.  They went to my Coates' grandparents house to live with them and his 8 siblings.  I don't know how many of them were at home at that time, but I know many of them were still there. In 1920, my granddaddy, Rufus Coates, built my parents a little 3 room house near the woods on his farm.  They lived there for several years before moving onto a 19 acre tract of land near Highway 210 in Johnston County on the same family farm.  There were 150+ acres all total.  They built a bigger house there, which is where I lived for the early part of my life.  During the years between 1920 and 1935, they lost 4 babies.  When my mother was expecting me, the doctor told her she was going to die trying to have a baby.  She told him that she believed God will give her a baby.  She was in bed for 6 months before I was born on October 30, 1935.  The doctor told her he could only save her or the baby and she said, "You save the baby and God will take care of me."  She was unconscious for 18 days and stayed in the hospital for 3 months.  I went home with my grandparents when I was 14 days old and they took care of me until she came home on January 30, 1936.  When my granddaddy died on Jan. 30, 1936, my parents moved to the family big house to take care of my grandmother.  (That is the first place I remember living.) My aunt, Fannie Maie, who had been about 8 months old when my parents got married, was 17 and helped care for me.  My granddaddy came into the house one day and no one was sitting beside the cradle watching me.  He said, "Florence, you know this baby's mother might die and we have to watch this baby.  Why is no one watching her?"  My grandmother said, "Rufus, I have raised 9 children and I didn't watch them every minute and I am not going to watch her every minute.  She will be fine."  (Just a little humor to add to my saga.) She came home from the hospital the day my Grandfather Coates died.  Let me go back a little bit to my father's call to preach the gospel.  He said he felt God's hand on his life when he was 12 years, but in those days children were not allowed to make a profession of faith until they were older.  He waited until after he and my mother were married. They were in a Saturday morning service at our home church, Saint Mary's Grove near Highway 210 and my daddy went out one end of the pew to speak to the minister and when his reached out his hand, my mother's hand was before his.  She had gone out the other end of the pew.  So that is how they started their journey in serving the Lord together.  My mother was pregnant with their first child (their only son) in 1922 when my daddy was diagnosed with acute nephitis.  The doctor said he would not live unless he listened to what my mother said because he would tell her what to do to make him live.  He spent 3 years flat of his back and during that time their son was born and only lived 8 hours.  He and my mother worked at Woodall's Department Store in Benson for 7 years before they moved back to the farm.  During the course of the next 13 years, they lost 3 more babies.  During that time and until 1958 (I think) my daddy served churches in several counties in NC. He preached revivals all over NC for many years.  He was pastor at Corinth Free Will Baptist Church in Sampson County for 19 years.  He had been there for 2 years when I was born and left when I was 17.  He preached there the 4th Sunday in each month and later was there 2nd and 4th Sundays each month.  That will always seem like home to me.  Those people are the salt of the earth and when I see any of them, and some of them are still living, or the younger generations, they always know me.  It is such a blessing to be told how much they loved my parents, and me, when I was growing up. We lived on the farm until I was 5 and then lived in Benson for 2 years.  My daddy worked with his long time friend, Allen Johnson, in his fertilizer sales business until 1941 when he had a stroke and we moved back to the farm. ( Mr. Allen was in high school at Benson when my daddy rode his bicycle 16 miles each Sunday afternoon to go to school and then back on Friday to work on the farm until Sunday.  They both wanted the same seat and when they couldn't push each other, they decided to sit together and were fast friends until my daddy died in 1968.)  From then on until his death in 1968, he only preached.  I had such a wonderful childhood, but it would take a year to write all of it down.  I do not know much about my mother's family.  She was in the second set of children for her mother.  Her mother's first husband died in the Civil War and she was left with 4 children - 2 girls and 2 boys.  She then married my grandfather, Henry Hall, who had never been married and they had 2 girls and 2 boys.  My mother was the youngest of their children.  I am the only living relative of my generation on her side who is still living.  There are some younger cousins but I don't have much contact with them.  This is a rambling account of my early life as best I can remember.  It is not in good chronological order, but maybe someone can get something out of it.   I will continue next time with my life with Lewis and then my children.

Lewis and Celia