Fear Not, Said Grandma

By Joyce Martin

Grandmother instilled faith and faith provides stability for a child, which helps her through many trials and tribulations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 6, 2002
• ISBN: 9781466994898

Joyce Martin

Joyce Martin lives in Enid, Oklahoma. She is the mother of four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Her hobbies are poetry, oil painting, writing and bridge.

Book preview

"FEAR NOT,

SAID GRANDMA"

BY

JOYCE MARTIN

©

Copyright 2002 Joyce Martin. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Martin, Joyce, 1932-

Fear not, said Grandma / Joyce Martin.

ISBN 1-55395-041-0

ISBN 978-1-4669-9489-8 Z(ebook)

1. Martin, Joyce, 1932-. 2. Grandparent and child.

I. Title.

BF723.G6 8M37 2002 155.9’24 C813’.6 C2 002-9042 8 0-1

Image6060.JPG

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This book was published on-demand in cooperation with Trafford Publishing.

On-demand publishing is a unique process and service of making a book available for retail sale to the public taking advantage of on-demand manufacturing and Internet marketing. On-demand publishing includes promotions, retail sales, manufacturing, order fulfilment, accounting and collecting royalties on behalf of the author.

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INDEX

•   Afraid Of My Own Shadow

•   Clyde

•   Grandma

•   Who Are All Of These People?

•   Summers

•   Winter Again"

•   Finally, School

•   My Family

•   Move

•   High School

•   Memories

•   Moved On

•   Stairway Of Life

Many of my friends and family members have said, You should write a book. The first thing that runs through my mind when they say that is, No one would believe it if I did.

However, if the message could be conveyed that there can be true happiness amidst complete chaos then it would be worth writing about (my life, that is) and it would also be worth reading.

A strong Christian faith and a sense of humor, along with my Grandmother’s encouragement, has been my pillar of strength, but that does not keep bad things from happening. It does however help the healing of your heart and mind.

Joyce Martin

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my Grandmother, Margaret Hayes whose words of encouragement and fear not have helped me throughout my life.

Grandma came to Oklahoma a short time after the Land Run in 1898. She was the wife of a country preacher and carried her love and devotion on to three generations of her own family and they are still passing them on to their families.

I’m sure each family would have a different story to tell.

This is my story.

CHAPTER ONE

AFRAID OF MY OWN SHADOW

Darkness and big black shadows from the flickering coal oil lamp filled the room and the open stairway looked like an upside down funnel that led to the mysterious rooms overhead. A roaring fire in the big pop-belly stove should have been cozy, but it wasn’t, it just made more shadows on the wall. One of the big shadows moved every time I did.

And the fire, what if it didn’t stay in the stove like it was supposed to?

There I sat, in the middle of the family room floor on my brand new potty. It was shiny white with a big handle on the side. It was evidently bedtime because I was wearing my new homemade pajamas. The drop seat in the back saved you from having to take your pajamas completely off when you sat on your potty.

My parents were having a heated argument, something about vegetables. Mamma was trying to give me some Fletcher’s Castoria, the very best laxative in those days, according to Grandma.

Why was I so frightened? Was it the big shadows on the wall, the fire in the stove, the arguing, or was it Mamma?

My efforts were trying very hard not to do anything that would get my new potty dirty. Mamma would sure be mad about that Also, I was making plans to somehow get up those stairs and see what was up there.

Grandma would always laugh when I got up after sitting there for a long time. She would say You have a ring around your moon. That didn’t make any sense to me, but she laughed so I laughed too.

These were my first childhood memories and it seemed to be the start of my fears and confusion. It sort of set the stage for how my life would be handled in the future, trying and failing, to please everyone and always being afraid and very curious about everything.

Only when I look in a mirror and see the gray hair can I even imagine how many years have passed, because these memories are so vivid in my mind.

It was the 1930s, right in the middle of the Great Depression, and my parents (the Folks) were very unhappy about having a child, especially at their age. It was sort of taboo in those days to have a child so late in life.

There were four children in my family, Nola, Elmer, Velma Mae and myself.