Lines of Life Run Through the Mountains: A Message of Hope

Lines of Life Run Through the Mountains

A Message of Hope

Thelma J. Flynn

ISBN 979-8-89243-674-8 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-675-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Thelma J. Flynn

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 1-13127648841

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

As we age, we gain experiences, knowledge, and wisdom—knowledge about a topic and the wisdom of when and how to use it.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11 KJV)

Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13 KJV)

Introduction

Chapter 1

The Foundation

Chapter 2

A Struggling Country

Chapter 3

The House That Father Built

Chapter 4

Two-Room Schoolhouse

Chapter 5

Pathway to Destruction

Chapter 6

The Big City

Chapter 7

Path of Poverty

Chapter 8

Family Path

Chapter 9

Smelling the Coffee

Chapter 10

Heartbreak and Trouble

Chapter 11

Death Knocked Again

Chapter 12

Overcoming Obstacles

Chapter 13

Fire in the Cubicle

Chapter 14

A Service of Love

Chapter 15

Resilience and Determination

Chapter 16

Number 9—War Times

Chapter 17

Wishes Fly with the Wind

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Life has a plan for you and me. Will we have the wisdom to implement it?

As we age, we gain experiences, knowledge, and wisdom—knowledge about a topic and the wisdom of when and how to use it.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11 KJV)

Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:13 KJV)

Introduction

In a dream, fifteen years ago, I awakened, saying, Don't forget, just ask grandma. Throughout the years, I pondered, Why should I remember such a strange statement? What could it mean? When you finish this book, I hope that you will understand the statement's importance, as I have come to resolve the why.

My name is Thelma Flynn. I was born in 1946 in a family of ten children, living in the isolated Appalachian Mountains of Virginia—a family deep in poverty, with little education, day-to-day struggles, and many tragedies. There were many pitfalls this family faced living in poverty. They survived through their struggles year after year. Would backbreaking work get them back on top, or would it bury them? Sometimes they, and maybe you, are so low and so discouraged that you feel you need to reach up to touch the bottom. I am hopeful you find the strength to overcome any challenges that you may be facing. You will read about each child and their challenges, successes, and in some cases overcoming impossible odds.

My eldest sister, Shirley, lived a very tumultuous and complex life and chose to be estranged from the family for eighteen years. After a telephone call to her, it broke the chain that had her bound, and it opened the door so she could communicate with us again. I then was plunged deep into a life that was broken, battered, destroyed, and left empty, and a person who was crying for help from her sister.

As time passed, week after week I began receiving minitapes that my sister would dictate stories of unbelievable tales. Each week, she called, and we would talk about many things, including politics, which she loved. She would always say, I am not proud of what I have done and don't listen to any tape until my death, then you can write a story. I kept that promise I made to her. As I have listened to some of the tapes, I feel her pain through her voice. She hurt so many with her actions, and yet she helped hundreds, maybe thousands, with her generosity, love, and compassion. However, people never knew who she was.

As a family of ten children, we were taught to love one another, forgive one another, and pray for one another. Nine of us chose to welcome our sister back into the family. One brother could not understand how she could abandon us, then waltz right back into our lives and expect us to forget everything.

Often we equate what is happening in life as just life. Yes, there is truth in that, however, we often find ourselves in situations that lead us down uncomfortable pathways, like my sister Shirley. This book does not capture many of the successes of this family. I will be focusing on the challenges these members faced, what poverty can do for you and against you, and how faith, hard work, and a good attitude will bring you out. I am prayerful and hoping that on some page of this book, you will find your strength and your reason for living. You are loved by many, including many strangers that you have not even met. We are all created in his image, loved by him, and loved by thousands who follow him.

There are many sources of information today. News cycles around the clock, social media platforms are endless, video, live stream, all the messages, so-called experts want you to hear and believe. Often the message is for you to believe and not question the information. It's their perspective, and often it is driven by the message to make money. Yes, I am hopeful about the financial success of this book, however, if one person finds their way in this life and serves their God, the time, and money spent on this project, then I will deem this a success!

In your life, you will have trouble, and you will have success. Every generation has its stories, and this generation will have its stories to tell. You can be a parent figure or grandparent figure to those that are strangers. Just getting involved is all it takes.

We look at Hollywood and the news media and see that money doesn't bring happiness. Yes, you are correct. We need money to survive and live a good life. Work hard to obtain all the things you want and deserve. However, it cannot be the only driving force. There are many examples where it has destroyed the greatest in their field of entertainment, science, technology, education, politics, and so on. Don't let your life be consumed with acquiring riches only. Riches will not satisfy the soul. Having peace, family, friends, and knowing your God, you will find it is most satisfying!

I am child number eight born in this family, and I don't know what it was like in the late 1930s and 1940s since I was born many years later. In some parts of this story, you may find it difficult to believe and understand. This is true as I was told by other family members, research, and my memory.

Chapter 1

The Foundation

As the electric and telephone lines weave from state to state, city to city, to large and small communities, rural to urban, over hills and down in the valleys, from the beginning of these pages to the very last word, ultimately the lines of life run through the mountains will be a message of hope to all that believe.

Recently, I realized stories of our American families are being lost. It appears families are not telling the younger generation their story. One reason could be so many families are broken by divorce. Children are shifted from one parent to another, and I believe history is being lost through the brokenness of the home.

There is a brokenness from divorce in many families, including my own children's lives. I decided I needed to tell our story so all future generations will know about our country, our families, challenges, successes, and how the people and country overcame unprecedented obstacles in the 1900s and beyond. Each year, families lose loved ones. Often we say, I wish I had asked.

Being one of ten children born into a family living in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, we had many challenges, successes, and failures in the family of two hardworking parents—parents who knew and lived in a world of poverty. Yet there was a message of hope.

Garland, my father, was born in Laurel, Virginia, on June 10, 1908 or 1910. Records show conflicting dates. He passed away on February 14, 1988, from a stroke and pneumonia. Ruby Gladys, my mother, was born in Dorchester, Virginia, on November 23, 1910. She passed away from renal failure on January 29, 1987. Both Garland and Ruby are at rest in Cowpens, South Carolina.

When Ruby Gladys, my mother, met Garland, my father, in the hills of Virginia, they were struck with love. Garland's side of the family had one brother and two sisters. Gladys's side of the family had nine girls and one boy. Often families living in the community or next door married each other. This is the case in this family. The boys in Garland's family married sisters in Gladys's family. Garland and Gladys were married on January 17, 1931. For the next twenty years, they had children almost every two years until they reached child number ten.

Gladys was a short woman, about four feet, eleven inches tall, and weighed about ninety to one hundred pounds most of her life. Garland was not exceptionally tall, even though he always appeared tall since he was so thin. It was said he was about five feet, eleven inches, and about 140 pounds in his early life. He dressed in his one and only tailored three-piece suit and his wide-brim, almost velvety-feeling Stetson hat, and his accessory was a gold pocket watch.

In the thirties and forties, men and women did not go into public without the proper clothing, and Garland and Gladys were no exception. Garland would walk tall in his tailored suit, with his small, petite wife, Gladys, on his arm. Gladys often wore her only good dress, as she would call it. It was her Sunday go-to-meeting dress.

Gladys had one pair of dress shoes for her tiny feet. She was required to special order her shoes since a lady size two and a half wasn't stocked in the company store. Gladys often would stuff tissue paper in the toe of her shoes to help fill them out since they were often too large. If she didn't have the money to order the shoes, she would wear children's shoes that she could purchase at the local company store.

Employees worked for the local mines, and the mines owned the town. Employees and their families shopped at the company store. Employers paid their employees in script. The script was the company money and could only be spent at the company store. They had the system fixed for the company only, not the employees. Father was paid $1 a day and worked from sunrise until sunset; my oldest brother said.

Along with Garland and Gladys dressing properly in public, they tried to do the same with the children on Sunday. She dressed the family at their very best and attended church on Sunday.

In the summer, Gladys and the children would go barefoot to save wear and tear on the shoes, in hopes the shoes would be good to wear in the winter months. Each