Sammy Lee Barnett Tankersley's AutobiographyFORWARD:Sammy Lee Barnett Tankersley was a remarkable woman, strong and courageous, and would have been so in any time and place. She was intelligent, talented, well read and self-educated, a Christian, a concerned contributor to the community she lived in, and always, and most importantly, devoted to herfamily. Was she a perfect person? Perhaps not but no matter. We do not love our family and friends because of the absence of fault or flaw; we cherish them for the presence of positive qualities of character, personality, and temperament - and because they are ours. We bear with fault and flaw and pray those we love will do as much for us. As I grow older, I think of my mother and grandmother often. I see them more clearly, understand them better and love and appreciate them more. I am thankful for the rearing and examples Grandma Tankersley gave to my mother and her sisters and to me; for the ability after the longest, darkest, most anguished night, to rise in the morning, move on, and always savor life. On her last visit to us, Grandma assured me that there is a heaven and all our family would be together there. I pray she was right for as the winter of my life approaches, I long to be with them all again. PREFACE:"I don't know whether you know that long, sad wind that blows so steadily across the thousands of miles of Midwest flatlands in the summertime. If you don't, it will be hard for you to understand the feeling I have about it. Even if you do know it, you may not understand. "To understand the summer wind in the Midwest is one of the most melancholy things in all life. It comes from so far and blows so gently and yet so relentlessly; it rustles the leaves and the branches of the maple trees in a sort of symphony of sadness, and it doesn't pass on and leave them still. I
just keeps coming, like the infinite flow of Old Man River. You could - and you do - wear out your lifetime on the dusty plains with that wind of futility blowing in your face. And when you are worn out and gone, the wind - still saying nothing, still so gentle and sad and timeless - is still blowing across the prairies, and will blow in the faces of the little men who follow you, forever." We were not afraid of things; we were children of destiny." Continue to Part I, Happy Times
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