How love built a Kentucky life

What would dri­ve two grown adults to pack all their belong­ings in an old sta­tion wag­on, an old­er pick­up truck, and a home­made trail­er and move to a place where they knew no one? And didn’t have jobs or a place to live, either. And very lit­tle money.

It wasn’t des­per­a­tion, although it may have looked that way. Lots of peo­ple get by with very lit­tle, wait­ing for some­thing to change or try­ing to change the life they live. But we had done that, sep­a­rate­ly and togeth­er, more times than we want­ed to talk about. Family dra­ma added to the motive for change. We want­ed hon­est work and to make a good life together.

Seems like most peo­ple stick around where they were born or where their fam­i­lies are, or where work takes them. Were we coura­geous or were we foolish?

Most impor­tant­ly, we had a bond of love, shared val­ues, and trust in each other.

So we land­ed in Clark County, Kentucky, and stayed at a cheap motel in Winchester for a few days until we found a cheap trail­er to rent. I found a job that first week, my hus­band did the fol­low­ing week. Neither job paid much, but it was bet­ter than noth­ing and allowed us to eat and dri­ve to work. We also met peo­ple and got a good feel for the place we decid­ed to call home. Six months lat­er, we moved to anoth­er cheap trail­er but out in the coun­try and with no close neighbors.

We did get to know the farmer around the cor­ner and my hus­band did some work for him from time to time. After a few years of pay­ing rent to the farmer, he offered to sell us a few acres. By then, we had estab­lished cred­it and a decent rep­u­ta­tion so were able to buy that land. Another few years, a total of sev­en from when we moved to Kentucky, and we were able to build a house on our land.

We worked hard, often at two jobs. He was a truck dri­ver, a secu­ri­ty guard, a fac­to­ry work­er. I was a sec­re­tary, a job coach, a case man­ag­er. We cut and split and sold fire­wood, togeth­er. We gar­dened, and every year it seemed like that gar­den got big­ger. I learned to can and we bought a freez­er. Then I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to get a free master’s degree. As much as I hat­ed school, I was smart enough to go back. And end­ed up with a bet­ter job with bet­ter ben­e­fits because of that degree. I stayed with that employ­er for 27 years, and loved it.

We had many dogs through the years. We also had many cars and trucks and a few trac­tors. Eventually, I bought my first new vehi­cle and was so hap­py with it. We had some fam­i­ly from both sides vis­it a few times. I have made some won­der­ful friends. 

He retired and was hap­py to stay home and work in the woods and fields and on his farm equip­ment, even though we had giv­en up gar­den­ing when backs began to hurt and pur­chased pro­duce was near­ly as cheap as grow­ing it. 

We were able to acquire more land. We trav­eled some. We enjoyed being at home, togeth­er. We sang, we laughed, we danced in the kitchen, often rem­i­nisc­ing about our ear­ly days when we bare­ly had a kitchen. We sat on the porch and watched nature change sea­sons and crit­ters go by.

Lots of things have changed through the years. There was loss but also gain. It wasn’t all fun. It was a lot of hard work. There were dis­agree­ments but also com­pro­mise and close­ness. Forty years togeth­er, and there was fun and love and remem­brances and still the same shared values.

We made a great life for our­selves, together.