Faye Sizemore

GONE HOME
Miss Faye Rosabel McWhorter: Gone Home September 24, 2004

Miss McWhorter stood just a little over five feet tall
but the things she did were not small at all
Born in the house where she lived all her life…
the very same one where her parents were married…
in front of the fireplace in the living room of the abode
before they started their big family on Flat Rock Road…
Yes… she’d tell you… ‘I was born here
in this very same room’ where years before
… her parents had taken their vows
She was one of twelve children… wow…
eight brothers… of which as she said
she was ‘born right in the middle of’
and three other girls… all to love
As they came along rooms were added on
until the little house became quiet large
When they were growing they had a player piano
and she told me with an impish smile…
that on Saturday night you could hear it for a mile
Miss McWhorter’s father taught for years
in a one room country school… just up the road
He died early… despite all their tears
Faye never married because family came first
When one of them was sick… she was their nurse
Two sisters married and had children of their own
Her older sister Zelma stayed at home
One brother had a wife’s big family to care for
as his father in law had lost his life in a cotton gin
That made him his in laws only provider so when
Word War II came… Walter stayed and the other brothers went on
to come back when the war was done… with medals each one
The women ran the farm all alone…
they took care of every chore
until the men came back home from war
but after awhile that the brothers had been home…
they took themselves wives and moved on
That gave her nieces and nephews to care for
Their Mother took sick and was bed ridden
for the rest of her life
Faye and her older sister at home…
took care of their mother till her death
Again she and her sister were alone
Zelma and Faye made butter and sold it to the stores
Faye worked out but Zelma always stayed at home
and then their bachelor brother took ill with a bad hip
Faye took him in and nursed him back at home
After he died and her older sister had a stroke…
she took care of her too… until it was her time to go
Her hair was snow white and so were her deeds
She was quick to laugh and liked to sass
Faye worked twenty-eight years in the school lunch room…
starting in a little school cooking on a smoky woodstove
and carrying water from a well outside too
She let the poorest kids chop her wood for her…
in the mornings… for a free lunch at noon
She and Zelma rented some land to a sharecropper
who planted it in cotton and then left it alone
To save their crop she plowed that cotton
with a ornery old mule each day after school…
sometimes finishing by the light of the moon
Tonight I am told her work on Earth is through
She’s gone to meet her family in Heaven
How happy she must be to see her Mamma And Papa
and three sisters… and brothers… all seven
and there is Harry… her old beau
who died before their wedding… so long… long ago
Ninety four years is a goodly time
to spin around on this old sphere
She was my friend… an older confidant
She taught me so much and I will miss her here
Ms McWhorter stood just a little over five feet tall
but the things she did were not small at all…

©Copyright September 25, 2004 by Faye Sizemore