On July, 1920, Woodrow Wilson was the President of the United States, the United States was recovering from “the War to end all wars”, and about to enter into a period called the Roaring Twenties. In a small town in Eastern Indiana, a baby girl was born to parents who were barely more than children themselves. They were Irish Catholic, and were poor beyond poor. They soon had another girl and the family began to travel the United States in search of work….any work that would sustain them. Often the two baby girls were left with relatives for long periods of time. As the 1930’s approached, life got no better. The Great Depression made the search for work even more desperate, and the tensions on this little family of four were too great. In the mid 1930s two events further battered this young baby girl. Her parents divorced. Less than a year later the now teenaged girl’s mother died. The cause was given as pneumonia, but the teenager would always suspect that her mother died of a broken heart. Despite this, or maybe because of it, this teenaged girl vowed to make family the single most important thing in her life. At the young age of 19 she married a man who had gone to college and who really hadn’t suffered the worst of the Depression as her family had experienced. She had spotted this boy/man at a high school function when he came back to speak at his high school about the importance of going to college. She leaned over to a friend, the story goes, and said, “I am going to marry that man”…….and marry him she did in July of 1940. They were almost immediately faced with the realization that “the war to end all wars” did not accomplish the end of war, but perhaps made World War II that much more inevitable. The young man enlisted in the Army Air Corp, and because they weren’t too sure if he would return from war, they had a son in 1944. When the war ended they settled in Union City, Indiana again, and grew their family. A daughter was born in 1947, and another son in 1949. That young girl became a devoted mother. To her, there was nothing more important than her children and she wanted them to grow up with a sense of Christian values. This young woman also contributed to the family income by being a doctor’s secretary, and finally was the secretary of the First Christian Church in Union City. Her belief in God was unshakeable. Her faith filled every void. She was very involved in the Disciples of Christ Church at the local, regional and state level. Yet, it was her family that was her most direct concern. She taught those children well, and though they may not have learned every lesson they certainly could not blame the teacher. Later in life after she made sure that her kids were on their way she decided she would finally fulfill a life-long dream and go to college. She finished her 4 year bachelor program in 2 ½ years at Ball State. She graduated summa cum laude…..the only grade she got less than an A was a B in phys ed…(at the age of 54). She got her Masters in counseling and for ten years she taught school and was a counselor at Mississenewa Valley School in Union City, Ohio. How lucky those children were. She retired in 1975, and did volunteer work in counseling and with the church. Her best years were still ahead. She cared for that young man she married with a strength that no person should have to exhibit. In 1993 she was diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, and fought to live. For 12 years she continued that fight, and never lost her spirit or her love. In doing so she continued to teach her family and her friends not only how to live….but how to die. She left us on December 11, 2005, by simply slipping away with dignity and grace. July 18, 2013 is the 93rd birthday of my mother, Helen Elizabeth Betty Corbin. It is traditional to wish a spirit to rest in peace, but I know my mother’s spirit is not resting……that spirit is serving each and every member of her family, her friends, and her God. She has taught us how to live and how to love. My mother will live forever in the minds and hearts of all those that have had the honor to call her “Mom”, “Grandmother”, or friend. She was and is truly one of a kind.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 03:42:51 +0000
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