Myrtle Miller

On Oct. 23 of 1936 My mom came to the world in usual way

She grew up with love with many different relatives either living in the house or visiting. Her dad added on a room to their house and her grandfather moved in for his final days.

She often spoke of all the animals she had of ponies and different dogs when she was a child.

When she got into high school she joined band and would often talk about her playing drums at all the games.  Her dad fixed up a 42 ford that she had fond memories of following in her mothers footsteps racing the car but not like her mother that use to race the police delivering alcohol.

As she grew, she had dreams of traveling the world as an airline hostess but that was not to be.

A fine young man saw my mom when picking up his sister from the factory that they worked at and set his eyes on marrying that beautiful woman.

After camping on her doorsteps night after night and doing what ever he could for her father and mother (and her mother hiding all the love letters from every other male), she finally caved in and gave up her dreams of traveling around the world for another dream- growing old with this man and raising a large family.

At the ripe young age of 18 she was married and left her parents home just to move back in a few short months later, so they could save money for the down payment on their first home.

A year later their dream came true and they bought a small two bedroom house at the bottom of a hill on a dead end road. Perfect to start the large family they were planning- a boy, a girl and a set of twin. The children could go outside and play without the traffic. There was a nice creek in the back yard and plenty of trees to play in.

By 21 she had her first boy, less than 2 years later she had her set of twins and then came her girl. By the age of 24 she had her four children that she dreamed of.

But God had different plans and gave her another boy and by 25 she had to bury her first child, this was to get her ready for what was to come.

From all the pain and suffering that a person can live through there is nothing that compares to burying a child.

10 months later God gave her another boy to replace the one he took from her.

Her husband and her had figured out this baby making and after 6 children they were done. They started saving the money to buy a farm to raise their children and grow old together.

In five short years they had the money saved to buy the farm, and in a night of celebration and passion, God decided to give them another child.

Another child, but that was ok, she would have this child and then buy that farm.

The child was born. They saved more money and they knew the farm they wanted and the dream was going to come true, but then God said, I have different plans for you.

Her husband got cancer, the farm was out. As the money was slowly spent to save his life, it was not a big deal, they could cure him and then save money again. They were still young, but when she was 31 she lost her husband, had six children from between the ages of 1 and 10, no money and no skills to be able to get a job.  The chances of finding love again were slim to none, but that was ok, she was independent and was going to show the world what a single woman could do.

How could a middle aged woman with six children ever find another decent man that did not smoke, drink, or cuss?

How could she tolerate another man disciplining her children?

She would never have another man or another living sole in her life to tell her what she could or could not do, except one, and that was God. She spoke with God on a daily bases, and often on an hourly bases. She had a direct text message line to her partner.

As the years past,  I often heard my mom talk late at night going over the days events and the plans of tomorrow. She often spoke of how the world was ran by males and would not give females a break. She was often turned down for loans, turned down for decent jobs just because she was a female in those times, but it was ok her partner was looking out for her and walking hand in hand, leading, guiding, and at times carrying her through some of the worst times any person could imagine.

She had already had to bury a child but that was ok because God was getting her ready  so she could bury a husband, she had a baby in diapers but that was ok because he was a gift for losing her husband, she had to live in a mans world, and there were more hardships to come.  She had no time to think of her lost, she had work to do, she had to raise 6 children that needed her, and with Gods guiding hand walking hand in hand, they were going to get through it. She never spoke of faith or God, she lived it. Talking just makes the mouth tired, and she was already tired enough.

She took jobs where and when ever she could. She would sell what ever she could from Tupperware to Avon  to Watkins carrying her little child in diapers. The ladies loved the child, so she was thankful.

That beautiful little two bedroom home at the end of the dead end street with the babbling brook nestled into the woods was also stuck in the middle of an Urban jungle during the race riots. She knew that she had to get her children out of the violence, neighbor that got his throat cut for a dollar and sixty cents book fine, of the neighbors truck blown up and a war because the neighbor child let a bear out of a garage.  That dream of  that she had with her husband of living in the country.  Seemed to the best option for her. She could get her children safe.

At the age of 35, she found a farm.  She left the security of the house that her husband and her bought 16 years earlier and moved  into a 150 year old farm house that had cows and chickens living in it with no window.  The roads almost impossible to drive on when it rained with snow drifts as tall as her vehicle, well water to drink, only a wood burning stove for heat and no chance of an air conditioner,  10 miles from the nearest small town that she might find a job at, five miles of gravel roads, one of the oldest farms in Kansas that use to grow all the food for Fort Leavenworth. This was a place she could take her children out to and they would be safe.  What job could she have, could not sell Avon or Watkins out there. It did not matter because when you have faith in God things will work out, so with four screaming teenagers extremely mad being yanked from the only life they had known, from all of their friends, to be thrown out in the middle of no where in an alien life, she took a leap of faith and moved.

With some help of family members and a lot of elbow grease, the rain would not come in. She was safe.

At 4:30 in the morning she was up and going to a nursing home to clean up after people dying. Her children could catch the school bus to go to school, she would get done with her 8 hour shift and come home for a nap, then meet her children coming home from school just to set off and flip burgers at a fast food restaurant with her oldest son to be back home by 10:30 at night. Sure, She had 18 hour days but the bills were being paid. Then her house burned down. Now what.

38 years old, six children, forty miles out of no where and plum in the sticks with nothing on there backs but the clothes they had left the house with that morning. Now what.

Never did I ever hear her say, God why me, why have you done this to me, instead she asked, ok God now what are we going to do. In all of the times just like Job, she never once turned her back on God, instead she would talk to him every night asking for help and guidance.

My mom was the strongest person I have ever met.