Happy Birthday, Sweet Baboo!

My wife, Linda, celebrates her birthday today.
I'm probably not supposed to tell you her age, although today she catches up with me. Suffice it to say that we have both qualified for the "senior discount" at a number of eateries for some time now.

The photo at right is nearly four years old. It's hard to get a more recent photo, because Linda is notorious for avoiding the camera. Individual pictures of her are hard to come by. We have several hundred photos saved on our computer, but I didn't realize how few we have of her (by herself). Anyone who knows Linda, knows she would rather point the camera at one of her boys or grandsons, than have it trained on her. But today is her day, and she is going to be in the spotlight - whether she likes it or not!

Linda discovered America just after the mid point of the 20th century (boy that sounds flattering doesn't it?) at the Bowling home in Rutherford Hollow (that's pronounced "Relford Holler" in those parts) at North Matewan, WV. That's right - NORTH Matewan!
She was the fourth of six children born to Burgess and Orpha Bowling, a hard working "Salt of the Earth" couple who lived along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River - sometimes on the West Virginia side in Mingo County - later on the Pike County, Kentucky side. For those who may not know, that is the heart of Hatfield - McCoy country where the famous feud took place long ago. Although her mom was a Smith, she did have connections to the McCoy family.

Linda's oldest sibling (her only sister) was eight years her senior, and she was off to college and starting a career when Linda was only 10 years old. I can only imagine what her life at home must have been like, sandwiched between two older brothers and two younger brothers! I would think it would be safe to say that she learned to take up for herself pretty quickly. Linda's mom and dad were two of the finest people I have ever known. Burgess worked away from home (construction work - running heavy equipment) for a period of several years - mostly home late in the evenings or on weekends. That left Orpha to be the Chief Operating Officer for the family during the week. She was what we call today, a stay at home mom with a full time job of raising a family of six kids. She did a pretty darned good job.

For the first 7 years of her schooling - Linda attended a one room school, which was about a 6 iron shot from her home. The little schoolhouse served children from the community of Buskirk, KY in grades one through eight. Mrs. Cleo Varney was the old fashioned "school marm" who was responsible for keeping order and imparting knowledge to this varied group of students. It's a little difficult for most of us who never attended a one room school to imagine how that worked. Well, Linda will tell you that Mrs. Varney maintained order and earned the respect of the children from first to the eighth grade. She must have also been a first rate educator, as the test scores from Buskirk Grade School were always among the top in Pike County schools. The little one room school eventually was consolidated with another school in a new building on Blackberry Creek and the Buskirk Grade School was demolished.

Upon Linda's graduation from Belfry High School in 1969, she decided to move to Huntington, WV where her older sister had begun her career as a secretary at International Nickel Company. Violet had recently married, so Linda moved in with her former roommate, Sandy Chapman. She found a job working in the credit department at Anderson-Newcomb, Huntington's largest down town department store. I met her in October that year, and neither of our lives were the same from that point on! We dated for nearly two years and were married at Thomas Memorial Free Will Baptist Church on June 19, 1971.

I drug her to places like Willow Wood, Ohio; Biloxi, Mississippi; Marquette, Michigan; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Ashland, Kentucky. She stayed right with me, sometimes through difficult circumstances, never complaining. We weren't Gypsies, but in the first 8 years of our married life, she may have felt like one at times. She is one of the most selfless people I have ever known. For 36 years Linda has put husband and children (and now grandchildren) ahead of her own interests. In fact we ARE her interests!

Linda took my family on as her very own, and her folks have treated me like their own son - not just a son in law. She has known joy and happiness and she has known the sadness of losing her older brother in a tragic coal mining accident, and the sudden passing of her dear mother on Christmas Eve several years ago. She has faithfully looked after her dad since her mother's passing and honestly, I don't know what he would have done without Linda. Oh sure, he has contact with the other kids, but Linda is his rock. She's mine too.

Her life went completely on hold for the two years that we were battling my cancer. I'm sure the whole thing was harder on her than it was on me, but gosh, did she take good care of me! I know there were times she privately "lost it" - but never in front of me. Her faith was strong and she refused to believe that we would lose that fight. In the toughest hours, she would remind me that God is in control. Sometimes I needed to be reminded...

Linda would be described by many as a faithful pastor's wife, a wonderful mother, a trusted friend, a good neighbor, a partner, an exemplary employee, one of the girls, and a loving Mamaw.
I would call her my best friend and faithful life partner - the BEST human being I have ever known.

I love her. I have since the night I first saw her in October, 1969, and I always will.

She asks for little, but deserves the very best. She has lit up my life for nearly four decades. This is her special day - and I hope she has a great one.

Have a happy birthday, Baboo!