Surviving The Sin

By Wilma Smith

Surviving the Sin is a memoir of vivid memories, lessons of resilience, and a revelatory experience of life's ups and downs. A story of a broken family fearlessly embracing life and eventually finding their way toward betterment. The book is a glimpse into the life of poor Southern culture-but with a happy ending.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amazon Publishing Agency
• Release date: Jul 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088205907

Book preview

Surviving The Sin

By

Wilma Smith

Copyright © 2023 by – Wilma Smith – All Rights Reserved.

It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgment

About the Author

Who Am I?

Mama

Bananas

The Henleys

Herbert

Lizzie Kate

The Ditches

The Black Bonnet and Levi Garrett

Shoes

Finding Jesus

Mother

Rolling Store

The Grit

Mama’s New Home

Trip to Florida

Luxuries

Real Friends

High School

Lizzie Kate Again

Basketball

Graduation

Male Attractions

Married Life

Our First Store

Henry’s Family

Baby Girl

Wayne

Life with Boys

A New House

Baseball

Buck

Wayne

A New Store

Being a Granny

Mama

Home Again

My Name

Daddy

Henry

Covid

Turning 90

To Granny

Acknowledgment

Thank you to my adorable husband, who has put up with all my frustrations in this writing process. His faith in what I had to say and his desire for me to complete my dream pushed me forward, even when I wanted to stop writing. Without his encouragement, I would never have been able to achieve this goal.

Thank you, Carlee Golden, for reading my mind and creating my illustrations.

A very special thanks to Granny for sharing her life with me.

About the Author

Wilma Smith lives on an eighty-acre farm in rural Mississippi. She spent her childhood growing up on a small dairy farm. Having no brothers, only sisters, her dad taught them to milk cows, drive tractors, and haul hay just like boys. But her roots were also deeply embedded in education since eight of her dad’s brothers and sisters, including him, had been school teachers. She graduated from East Central Community College and from Delta State University with a B.A. degree in English and a minor in French. Wilma taught in Mississippi Public Schools for twenty- five years and retired. At that point, she joined the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and worked for fifteen years on the reservation as an English teacher and RTI Facilitator.

Wilma married her high school sweetheart the week after she graduated from Delta State, and they are celebrating forty- eight years of marriage.  She is the mother of three children, Emily, Shannon, and Richard; mother-in-law to Carl, Kevin, and Samantha; and Grammy to six adorable grandchildren, Drew, Reed, Ryan, Morgan, Annie, and Bentley. 

Wilma enjoys reading, sewing, appliqueing, monogramming, crafting, and watching her grandchildren play ball. She loves to create something from nothing. Retirement has graciously allowed leisure to also become a part of her life. Weather permitting, at about noon every day, she and her husband will be found fishing in their pond for catfish and bream. After fishing, she returns home to swing on her front porch and enjoy her diet coke. She loves a simple, quiet life.

God has blessed her life with so much goodness: a wonderful family, gracious friends, and His unconditional love. She never planned to write a book. It just happened one night when her heart was filled with emotion.

Who Am I?

January 8, 1932, I was born. Who was I? Where was I? I don’t know. We only know what we are told; believe me, I was told very little. Most families have moms and dads and siblings. To me, family was Mama, Herbert, and me. They were the two people I loved, the ones I looked up to, and the ones who were always there for me. I look back and often wonder how long my mother stayed with me after I was born. I wonder if she rocked me or hugged me or sang me lullabies? I wonder if she fed and diapered me? I wonder if she ever told me she loved me. I had no idea when she left me. I do wish God would let us remember those first months and years of our lives. Why does He shield us from knowing about the most precious moments life has to give? For me, I guess it was just His way of protecting me from the pain of rejection. A child really doesn’t want to remember being abandoned. Perhaps all God wanted me to remember was Mama’s love.

Mama

I always thought Mama was old. She never had that young youthful look in her eyes. I suppose, worry, fear, and tragedy had taken it away from her. Mama had six children. I don’t know if my mother was the oldest, but she was definitely one of the older. In 1924, when Mama was only thirty-five, a team of horses pulling a big wagon ran away with her husband Dave. He was only forty years old and lived just a few hours after the accident. I can’t even imagine how Mama felt. How in the world would a poor old woman with six children get by? Herbert, the baby, was only a year old. Well, all of that probably contributes to why Mama always looked old. There was a constant worry about how she would feed, clothe, and shelter six children