An Ending; A New Beginning

Wednesday - December 31, 2008
This blog is being dedicated to my twin - John Philip Layne. I love you and miss you!


This should be the last entry for the year 2008. Trying to decide what to title it and what to write has been a challenge. (The hardest part was not the writing, but deciding which pictures to post!) I've noticed as the years go by Bill and I both tend to be more sentimental and wanting to help make memories that will be cherished by the younger generations in the family as we cherished the memories of our parents and grandparents' generation. To be able to have them here and talk to them now - oh I'm sure we would be blessed and would appreciate more today what they had to say than when we were younger!

I love the line form "It's a Wonderful Life" when the older gentleman is on the porch witnessing the potential kiss of Jimmy Stuart and Donna Reed and he says "why is love wasted on the young?" This could refer to everything in our lives. When we are young - we know it all; the older generation lives in the past and doesn't have a clue of what life is like now; and we think we are invincible - nothing bad will happen to us. How naive we all were and are!

Yes, it's true things are different to a certain degree, but life's experiences tend to be the same - we grow up, fall in love, start our own families, and come back home for some advice we wouldn't accept when younger! There are so many days when I would love to call and talk to Dad or Pappaw about something going wrong with some of the things we deal with for "being the owner of an older house." They would have had a solution on how to fix the problems.

I would love to be able to share with Mammaw the progress of my crocheting. I can remember the days during the summer when the garden work was completed that she and I would sit in the living room and she would teach me how to crochet. I wish I had kept that first chain!! I think she would be so proud that crocheting has been passed on to another generation of the Laynes. Mom was a big help in my learning as well - even today she and I will discuss and practice a new pattern until we get it right! Mom doesn't crochet as much due to the losing of her eye-sight! But, she loves it when I crochet and Debbie shows her what she has been working on. We need to pass the Appalachian craft on to the next generation - we don't want it to become a lost art!!!

Bill would love to be able to have talked to his mother and Granny especially this past August. He also would have wanted to talk to his father and Granddad as well, but the news he wanted to share was something he knew both Bertha Marrs and Granny would have really loved to hear. The news was that there is a baby on the way - another generation of Hardins and McCoys. I can see Bertha Marrs grinning from ear to ear that Bill was going to be a Granddad, but not necessarily that she would be old enough to be a great-grandmother! :) They all would be so pleased to hear of the news David and Jeni shared with us back in August - they are expecting a baby!!!

We miss all our loved ones that are no longer here on earth with us - Bill's Granddad, Granny, Bertha Marrs, Clyde, Uncle Mack, and his great- aunts and uncles - Kenny and Daisy Roach and Mary Pearl and William MCCoy and the many others he loved; I really miss Dad, John, Mammaw, Pappaw, Granny Polly, Aunt Keller, Aunt Delma, Uncle Pete, Kay, Donetta, Uncle Son, Uncle Pak, Aunt Oma, Uncle Alf, Aunt Hammy, Aunt Dean- all of which I was really close to when growing up! I could have named many, many more because I do come from a much larger family than Bill does! I miss them all very much.

The one who I really miss right now is my twin - John. I don't miss him "more" than the others - but missing him is still fresh. I think of the others, but I think of him and Dad daily! I think a lot about my cousin Donetta who was taken from us in such a tragic way and knowing how she would have loved to be with her granddaughters! Both she and John's deaths were completely not expected. It doesn't mean because the others were older when they went home made their leaving any easier - it did not. The one thing we do know is that some day we will all be together again and oh what a reunion that will be!!!!

The following pictures is a way remembering. I did not have picture of everyone, but the pictures are in our memories and on our hearts! Mom and her sister are the only ones left of their generation! I am hoping this will give the younger generations a little bit of family history as to who we are and some of their roots!

Our grandparents, aunts, and uncles:

My mother's biological mother who died the day after Mom was born - Mary Jane Fowler Whitman. This is the only picture Mom has of her mother.


Granny Polly - Pollyanna McDonald Whitman -my grandfather's sister-in-law who took Mom in as an infant at the request of my grandfather.!

Pappaw Pud - Mom's dad - Allen Whitman

Mammaw - Dad's mother - Virginia Belle Davidson Layne
Oh the days I spent with her - precious memories

Pappaw - Dad's father - William J. Layne!
We were with Mammaw and Pappaw more - spending the summer months with them, and then they lived in the house behind us when they got older. We loved them both so very much. I see Pappaw in not only my brothers, but in my nephews as well - he loved to tease and pull little jokes on us!!

This is a picture of Mom with Aunt Keller (Mary K Whitman Butcher) who was one of Granny's oldest girls and took over taking care of Mom - she was like a mother to Mom! We loved Aunt Keller very very much!

This is a picture of Dad, his siblings, and parents - all of whom are together again!
l-r: Uncle Pak, behind him is Uncle Pete, Aunt Hammy, Dad, Aunt Oma, Uncle Son, Pappaw, Aunt Dean, and Mammaw!

Mom's brothers, sisters, their spouses, her Aunt Ett, and father at a family gathering.

Top row: Mom, Aunt Ett, Aunt Thelma, Uncle Tommy (brother)

Second row: Dad, Uncle Carney, Uncle Clyde

Third row: Aunt Olive (sister), Aunt Agnes (sister)
Fourth row: Uncle Tab (brother), Aunt Julie, Pappaw Pud

Kneeling: Uncle Kermit (brother) - we called him Uncle Bunk!
Mom and Aunt Olive are the only two left here on earth - Mom (88) and Aunt Olive (90)

Bill's grandmother he never saw - she had passed away before he was born - Angeline Hardin

This is a picture we had framed because we love it so - Bill's Uncle Mack and father - Clyde A Hardin - it looks like they had been playing in the creek!!! Clyde is on the left!

A picture of Bill's father's family at the home place in Lenore, WV. His grandmother - Angeline is in the middle at the bottom of the steps and his grandfather - William Harvey Hardin - is next to her on the right of the picture.

Bill's grandparents who lived in Inez, KY. His mother's parents - Charles McCoy and Harriet (Hattie) Goble McCoy.

David with his great-grandmother - Hattie McCoy.

Our parents:

Bill's mother - Bertha Marrs McCoy Hardin

Bill's dad - Clyde Austin Hardin

Bill's parents on a visit to Huntington. Bertha Marrs McCoy Hardin, David Austin Hardin, and Clyde Austin Hardin

Bertha Marrs and Clyde Hardin

My mother -Relma Irene Whitman Layne - who is still so spry and full of life at 88 years of age!

My dad and hero - Elmer J Layne!

An early picture of Mom and Dad . . .

. . . and 50 years later -August 17, 1996.

Bill and I wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year. 2009 will be here in less than three hours! Be safe - be good - and do unto others as you would have them do unto you! Love and prayers to all who read our blog!