The Stories My Mama Told

By Lucy Turley Denson

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469193946

Lucy Turley Denson

Lucy Turley Denson is the youngest child of 11, Born to Joseph and Nacissus Turley. Lucy was born April 22 1927. She remembers wonderful stories of her childhood. She has written these stories for all the people she knows and loves. Lucy married Lewis Denson on March 9 1946. They had 60 wonderful years together. Life as a minister’s wife can be difficult, but she always had a smile and a kind word for all. Lewis was the love of her life and she misses him dearly. She started writing stories to occupy her days and fill her heart with the love of family. This book has truly been a labor of love. Despite troublesome times over the last few years, she has preserved and stayed focused on the completion of this book. I am so very proud of her as are all my sisters and her nieces and nephews. Each time she reads this manuscript it evokes such strong memories she always cries, and so do we. I hope you will also feel the love come thru the stories of my mother, which are the stories her mama told. I love you mom Deborah Denson Edwards

Book preview

The Stories My

Mama Told

Lucy Turley Denson

Copyright © 2012 by Lucy Turley Denson.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2012905989

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Dedication and Thanks

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1    THE BEGINNING

Chapter 2    THE GREETING

Chapter 3    THE WEDDING DINNER

Chapter 4    THE WEDDING

Chapter 5    GOING HOME

Chapter 6    HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Chapter 7    THE FIRST BABY

Chapter 8    THE BROKEN HEART AND SHATTERED DREAMS

Chapter 9    FEAR OF THE STORMS

Chapter 10    JOY AND HEART BREAK

Chapter 11    DADDY’S CALL FROM GOD

Chapter 12    THE FLU EPIDEMIC

Chapter 13    THE MOVE TO FREEDOM

Chapter 14    A NEW LIFE AND A SAD FARWELL

Chapter 15    The Move

Chapter 16    THE HOUSE MY MAMA BUILT

Chapter 16 part 2    Mrs. Gardener.

Chapter 17    DADDY’S FAITH

Chapter 18    MY SIBLINGS

Chapter 19    REMEMBERING AUDREY

Chapter 20    THE POINTED NOSE

Chapter 21    THE SAFTY PIN

Chapter 22    THE PORCH SWING

Chapter 23    THE MAN’S FELT HAT

Chapter 24    THE BLACK SNAKE

Chapter 25    THE HAIR BOB

Chapter 26    MILLARD FILMORE TURLEY

Chapter 27    YES MAMA THERE IS A SANTA CLAUSE

Chapter 28    DAISY ANN TURLEY MCDONALD

Chapter 29    PEARLIE TURLEY WHETSTONE

Chapter 30    THE BUSINESS LETTER

Chapter 31    THE OLD OUT HOUSE

Chapter 32    MY BROTHER GILBERT

Chapter 33    THE BLACK EYE

Chapter 34    THE ONE THEY CALLED BABY

Chapter 35    REMEMBERING DADDYS ANTICS

Dedication and Thanks

I started writing about my family back in 1963. The journey to this point has been a long one. We have all grown old, and many are not here. When I started writing, I thought I would make everyone in my family a copy of my hand written notes. However, I never did. Many of the hand written notes are now old and faded with tattered edges. After my first heart attack, I was sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself. I started looking thru some of the things I had written. The more I read the more I knew I must put them in printed form for others to read.

Memories of all the long afternoons sitting with My Mother and Daddy, and Gertrude on the front porch,

Listening as Mother and Daddy carried me thru their journey of life together, began to fill my soul and mind.

Much of my story: are the things they told me.

However, after I finished with their love story: and it truly was a love story. I decided that it would be good to carry the story on past the time Mother died.

Mother died March 6 1966. When she became ill, we carried her to Stringfellow Hospital. She died there a week later. She died on a Sunday morning. All of her living children were with her as was my Dad and all of her daughters and sons-in-law.

Our family loved this Saint of a woman in life and in death.

For many years, my grief was so heavy, I could not bear to read the things I had written so I put the journal away. Now over forty years later, I picked up the journal and words cannot explain the memories that flood my soul. Moreover, how ashamed I feel that I let such wonderful memories of my Mother and Dad lay dormant for so many years. That In addition all but two of my siblings and my Dad are not here to share their story with me.

Dad died November 2 1981. Now so many years later I want to thank my Mother and Daddy, for the memories I hold in my heart.

‘LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH’

I also want to thank my four daughters, Laura, Donna, Deborah, and LuAnn that have encouraged me to make the love story of Mother and Dad known. I also want to thank my foster daughter Heidi Spilman for taking the helm to push me to share this story with you.

I want to dedicate this book to my sweet special sister Gertrude that planted the idea so many years ago as we sat in the glider swing on the long front porch.

Precious Memories, how they linger.

How they ever flood my soul:

In the stillness of the midnight:

Precious sacred scenes unfold.

IMG-322153924-0006_crop.jpg

Gertrude

STORIES MY MAMA TOLD

I stood outside my door last night.

I looked up in the heavens and saw a light.

A light so bright it made me smile.

I stood still and remembered for a while.

Memories of my child hood filled my soul:

As I remembered the stories, my Mama told.

Stories of hard times; that made me sad;

Stories of good times; that made me glad.

Stories of storms and lighting flashing

Off to Uncle John’s they were dashing.

Stories of Gertrude her sick child when

Her mother came and stayed for a while.

Stories of open rafters in an old farmhouse

How she was happy just being my Daddy’s spouse.

Stories of how when her mother died

She couldn’t go to the funeral because it

Was so many miles.

Stories of making Bill a shirt from her wedding parasol and

Dresses for her girls with rags from Jody’s step Ma.

Stories of how a chiropractor cracked my Daddy’s neck

Stories of her children playing in a sandy creek.

Stories of Uncle Pierce chewing green tobacco to make him tall

How he grew over a foot from spring to fall.

Stories of how Uncle Frank was the biggest man in town

How he weighed three hundred eighty pounds.

There are stories many, many more

That fill my mind with oh such joy.

Oh the stories in my memory bank to make me smile, and sometimes bring a tear to my eyes. These precious stories are from my Mother and my DAD that is my heritage.

Lucy

#2 PAGE 11 Narcissus and Joseph on the front poarch.jpg

Narcissus and Joseph on the front poarch

INTRODUCTION

It was summer 1963. My Dad had given my husband Lewis, and I an acre of land, and my brother Bill had helped us buy a doublewide mobile home. A few months before the doctor had told us that our Mother did not have long to live. Therefore, we knew someone had to be close by for her. We also needed to be there for my Dad and my special sister Gertrude.

One day after we had eaten lunch: as was the custom, Mother, Daddy, Gertrude, and I went to the front porch.

The porch was the entire width of the house with a glider swing on one end and porch chairs on the other.

Gertrude and I were sitting in the glider swing. From out of the blue, Gertrude said, I love to sit on the porch; it reminds me of when we lived in the country.

When we would get thru in the fields early, we would wash up, and come to the front porch to rest.

Some time we would cut a watermelon, some time we would peel some apples for Mama to dry, to make apple pies.

Before going to bed, we would gather and sit on the porch. Mama would most of the time sing to us, and Daddy would tell us stories. Mama said we needed time to relax before we went to bed. After Mama sang and Daddy told his stories, Daddy would pick up the Bible and read it to us. Then he would pray. As she talked, I thought, "I bet Mama and Dad have many stories about their life together. Stories that the family would like to know. The more I thought about it, the more excited, I became. The rest of the day, it seemed I could not think of anything else. When I went home, I talked to Lewis about it.

I told him I would like to write a love story about their life.

Lewis told me he thought that was a wonderful idea, and that I should get a note book and ask them some questions and write down their