Weaving My Way Through Life

By Natalie Pierce

This is the story of my life and what I needed to do to survive. My daydreams were my escape from life when I was a child. When I became an adult I learned there was always something I could do to make things better like getting a job for more money. If a project doesnt work one way you can weave around and go another way. I feel like Ive been weaving in and out all of my life. The most important thing is to never give up. A person can do anything if they never give up. That is the message that I hope you receive from my book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481759120

Natalie Pierce

When I was child I would walk down the road to a cut-off road which had a big rock where I could sat and day dream about my prince charming who would come to rescue me and take me to his beautiful palace to live. I would live in his enchanted castle forever. That didn’t happen but, the day dreams helped me get through life to endure the poverty that I was borned into until I was old enough to leave. There were some happy times in my early life but never enough to over shadow our meager existence. I was raised with three older brothers and six younger brothers. My two older sisters were gone before my seventh birthday. I always felt like I was misplaced and I should be doing something else but, I never knew what that was. I was very insecure and I always second guessed myself. After our divorce my husband disappeared for over forty years. No one knew where he was. I raised my kids alone with no child support and now they are well adjusted adults who have maintained jobs all of their lives.

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© 2013 by Natalie Pierce. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/06/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-5913-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-5912-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910094

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedicated To

My children

Val-James-Jayson

Special Acknowledgement

Barb

&

Pam

Friends

Virginia

Ruby

Jean

Deborah

Karen

&

Neighborhood Ladies

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Honorable Mention

Of

Neva

Roy Roger & Nancy

Kenneth & Karen

Thelma—08/14/1912 Fred—10/10/1903

Their 12 Children

Mary—08/24/1933 Tom—11/01/1944

Marcy—12/12/1935 Roy—07/14/1946

John—09/30/1937 James—10/29/1948

Fred Jr.—07/17/1939 Dave—08/13/1951

Charles—04/16/1941 Ray—12/04/1954

Helen—08/26/1942 Kenny—06/20/1956

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W hen I was a small child I asked my mother how she met my father. My mother told me that she met him in downtown Louisville, KY and he took her to a room, locked the door and wouldn’t let her leave the room I was curious about the story and kept asking questions but, I didn’t get any more details. I should have asked more questions because I always felt like my question was hanging in the air and never fully answered.

My mother said they got married and I assumed by a Justice of the Peace but, she didn’t give any details on the wedding. She always told everything accurately but sometimes the details weren’t explained fully I would have liked personal details on that subject.

My parents’ first child was born on 08/24/1933 a girl that my mother named Lynn. I don’t think they ever bonded or got along very well with each other. They each thought they were right about everything and their own opinion was what mattered. They couldn’t agree on anything and neither one budged from their decision.

I had always heard about Lynn but, I don’t remember seeing her until I was six years old when she came for a visit to Westview, KY a very short visit she left before I realized she was gone to go back to Louisville, KY to the girls’ home. Lynn was headstrong and stubborn and thought she was always right about everything. My mother had those same qualities but she thought Lynn should listen to her mother.

After school Lynn would go to a neighbor’s house and wouldn’t come home. The neighbors had a grown daughter who returned home after a divorce from her husband. My mother couldn’t understand why Lynn liked to go there because there wasn’t any kids at their house. I think they must have made her feel special and they catered to her and Lynn didn’t have to compete for attention like she did at home. Lynn always told me that her siblings were mean and they liked to fight. She said she went to the neighbor’s house to get away from her siblings. She couldn’t feel special at home. My mother was tired of arguing with Lynn about coming home so she decided to make her come home.

My mother took Lynn to court to make her come home. Mom thought the judge would order Lynn to come home. The judge talked to Lynn and gave her a choice, she could go home or she would have to go to a girls’ home. Lynn chose the girls’ home. That is the reason I can’t remember seeing Lynn at home. I remember seeing her at Westview when I was six years old for the first time.

Lynn and Mom both had strong personalities with strong religious beliefs they were too much alike and that is the reason they argued but, whenever Lynn’s name was mentioned at home Mom would say that she loved Lynn. I believe Mom did love Lynn but, she thought Lynn should listen to her and not disrespect her mother. When Lynn went to the girls home Mom had other babies at home and some children that were a little older. Carla was born in December 1935,Paul September 1937, Fred Jr. July 1939,Simon April 1941,Natalie August 1942,Gene November 1944 and Jacob July 1946.but,Carla,Paul,Fred and Simon were the ones that stuck together and terrorized the neighborhood. Carla and Fred were the meanest ones in the group who looked for pranks to play on the people. Fred liked to stick a broom handle on the door, knock on the door and run, then watch for the broom handle to hit someone in the head. One time Carla was smoking a grapevine in the outside toilet, I wanted to smoke one too. I had a scarf on my head because it was cold and I caught my scarf on fire. My Dad ran outside to jerk the scarf off my head and put the fire out. That must of cured me from smoking grapevines I wasn’t good at it but, Thank God & Dad I didn’t have any scars from it.

Another incident that happened while we lived in Louisville was my older brothers were in the alley teasing a monkey that was on the roof of a garage. The monkey got mad about the teasing and got loose and my older brothers ran away but, the monkey got into our house and got to Gene and bit him up and down his legs. Mom got Gene away from the monkey and took him outside closing the door behind her to confine the monkey inside. Mom forgot about Jacob who was a baby sleeping on his bed. When mom got back in the house after the monkey was gone Jacob hadn’t been touched by the monkey. Mom was amazed and said God protected her baby.

When I was four years old Carla, Fred, Paul and Simon built a fire I don’t know if the fire was in a container or not. When the fire burned down low Carla, Paul and Fred left to go someplace in the neighborhood. Then Simon got a stick and started raking the stick in the ashes which caused the fire to flare up again. I remember Simon telling me to get back and I remember backing up then I looked up and a big fireball was coming straight at me. I was four years old when that happened and that fire looked huge. The fire fell on me. I don’t remember the fire falling on me or my Dad running out to jerk my thin pants off me. My mother told me that my pants were really thin and the wind had come up and blew the fire on me.

I had been burned on my left leg between my ankle and my knee all the way to the bone. I couldn’t remember getting burned or going to the hospital or the recovery but, Mom told me that I dragged that leg around for a long time. I can’t remember those details which are lost from that time. I can’t see the scar but sometimes I can feel it from the texture of my skin.

My mother had been raised in the country as a sharecroppers daughter with three older brothers Sidney, Gordon and Howard.When my grandfather was unable to work because of failing health the family moved to Louisville so the family could get work. My grandmother worked too and rode the bus to get there. My grandfather had trouble getting around, sometimes the family would have to go find him and bring him home. I don’t know how long he lived in Louisville but, I was told that he died when Lynn was a baby.

Mom was living in Louisville when she met my Dad and started having babies. She had eight babies when she went to court to make Lynn come home. After court my mother was devastated and wanted to leave Louisville because she was afraid the court would take all of her kids from her. She wanted to go back to the country where she grew up, she knew what to expect in the country where everything was familiar.

My mother put her kids with relatives, some of my brothers went to my uncles on my Dad’s side. Carla and I went to Uncle Sid and Grace in Indiana it’s where I got my first memory since the fire. I remembered playing in leaves with Carla and Grace and getting Easter baskets I think I was five years old.

After mom had placed her kids with relatives she left to go back to the country, she had two or three kids with her. Mom found a place to live that was on the side of a store in Glendean, KY. Mom was pregnant with her ninth child when she moved to Glendean. I don’t know how my mother got to Glendean we didn’t have a car so I guess she took the bus. Gleandean is about 60 miles from Louisville, we walked all the time it’s a good thing we lived in a small town.

My memory was very sketchy when I stayed with Uncle Sid and Grace. The only thing I remembered was the Easter basket and playing in leaves everything else was blank during that time. The next thing I remembered I was in a strange place and I was told I was in Glendean. I had my sixth birthday soon after that. Mom introduced me to a woman named Claire who she said was her cousin, Claire had two kids Frances & Jimmy. They all lived with claire’s mother who was bedridden from A stroke and her speech was garbled and it was hard to understand what she was saying.

Frances and Jimmy would torment their Grandmother and she would become agitated and shake her fist at them waving her arms. Sometimes they would take my brothers into the house and torment their grandmother so they could laugh at her. Their Grandmother was helpless and couldn’t bother anyone. No one should be tormented that way.

A nice man who lived on the hill behind our house gave us a basket of tomatoes that Fred threw at him and hit him in the head with the tomatoes. Fred was laughing the entire time he threw all the tomatoes away. Mom was mad when she saw what he had done because she said she needed those tomatoes. We were very poor.

While we lived on the side of the store my brother Paul always said he had to knock the rats off us while we were sleeping. My mother just laughed at him because she didn’t believe him she thought he was just using that for an excuse to stay up. Then one night I said ouch when mom asked me what was wrong, I said something bit me. When Paul heard me say that he said he got so sleepy