Roy Craig heard that Mrs. Hendrix had a room to rent,
and he needed a place to stay. He knocked on the door, but there was no answer.
He pounded a little harder, but there still wasn’t any response. Roy turned
away from the door and had started toward the steps when he heard the door
swing open behind him.
2 He slowly turned back around and saw a thin but
handsome looking woman in a light blue dress with a little cape draped around
her shoulders standing in the doorway. She was staring at him through a pair of
glasses perched half-way down her nose.
3 “Yes?” she began. “May I help you?” “Uh, Avon
Hendrix told me that you might have a room to let, Mam,” Roy stuttered. “That’s
right,” she confirmed. “And who might you be?”
4 “My name is Roy Craig, Mam. I just got out of the
service, and I need a place to stay.” “Well, come on in and let’s talk about
it,” she said while holding the door open. “I’m Ann Hendrix,” she volunteered.
5 “I suppose you’d like to see the room?” she
continued. “Uh, yes Mam, if you don’t mind.”
6 Ann turned and walked toward the stairs to the
second story of the house. Within fifteen minutes, they had clinched the deal.
Roy Craig was now the new tenant of Ann and Virgil Hendrix.
7 Later that evening, he met their daughter for the
first time. “Mr. Craig, this is our daughter, Virgie,” Ann introduced.
“N-n-nice to meet you,” he said as he awkwardly extended his hand to the young
lady.
8 He had never seen anything so beautiful in his
entire life! She was perfection.
9 They were married in December of 1933. Their first
daughter, Betty, arrived a year and a half later. Two more little girls
followed in short order, Nancy and Myra.
10 Roy managed to find a few odd jobs here and there,
but not enough to support his new wife and family in a place of their own. For
the time being, they would continue to live with her parents.
11 Fortunately, Roy eventually landed a job with the
Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of President Roosevelt’s programs to
put people back to work. This enabled him to support his growing family and
finally begin to stand on his own two feet.
12 Then, wonder of wonders, a new opportunity opened
up for him. “Roy, the WPA is about to open a new project in Tennessee, and we
need a supervisor up there to get things started,” Mr. Goodson began. “A little
place called Smithville. You’d have to relocate, but it’d be a great
opportunity for the right man. You think you’d be interested in something like
that?”
13 “Uh, yes sir, I sure would,” Roy grinned. “Well,
alright then, let’s see what we can do about making that happen!” his boss
concluded with a slap on the back.
14 Roy ran all the way home to share the news with
Virgie. By the time he reached the front porch, he was out of breath and one of
his coughing spells had begun. He’d been having a lot of those lately, but he
was too excited to let that get the best of him. As soon as he regained his
composure, he rushed into the house and found his wife in the kitchen with her
mother.
15 Virgie was drying the dishes that Ann was washing
and rinsing in the sink. “Hey, sweetheart, you’re home a little early today,”
Virgie began.
16 Her pleased smile turned to ecstasy when Roy told
her his news. “That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. Ann looked stricken.
17 “Of course, you and Daddy will come with us,”
Virgie quickly offered. “Of course,” Roy agreed. “I’ll need you to help me with
the girls,” Virgie explained. “You know I can’t seem to get my strength back,”
she continued.
18 “Better go tell your Daddy,” Ann said with obvious
relief. She finally smiled.
19 Smithville was about twenty miles north of
McMinnville, Tennessee. Far from family and friends, the entire venture was
founded on Roy’s promotion and his job with the WPA. At first, it looked like
the gamble might just pay off.
20 It wasn’t long, however, until the precariousness
of their situation was apparent to everyone. Roy was tired all of the time and
began to lose weight. He was coughing constantly now, and he was regularly
hacking up blood tinged spittle. Even worse, Virgie was still weak and had
developed a cough of her own.
21 “You’ve got to see a doctor,” Ann said after one
particularly bad coughing spell. Roy had missed two days of work, and he wasn’t
getting any better.
22 The unspoken fear that now permeated the household
was consumption. They had, after all, seen this before.
23 “I don’t want to hear another word,” Virgil finally
proclaimed. “I’m calling for the doctor!”
24 “You have an advanced case of tuberculosis, Mr.
Craig,” the doctor said flatly. “Will he have to go to one of those hospitals?”
Virgie asked in bewilderment. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” he said
grimly.
25 “And, of course, you know that you’re also a very
sick young lady,” he continued. “Try to keep them comfortable, Mrs. Hendrix,
and keep the children away from them as much as possible.”
26 With that, the doctor gathered his things together
and headed for the door. He stopped briefly at the front door and turned
around. “I’m very sorry,” he said as he pulled his coat up around his neck and
pushed on through to the outside. “Good Lord!” he mumbled to himself as he took
in a deep breath of the clean cold air outside of the house.
27 Things began to move quickly after that. Within two
weeks of receiving the news, Roy’s father had shown up in Smithville and whisked
his son away to Alabama. Virgie was bedfast now. Her mother was serving her
bowls of soup on a tray.
28 “I’m hungry,” Betty cried. “Give it to her, Mama.
I’m not hungry anyway,” Virgie whispered.
29 Tears streamed down Ann’s face. This was so unfair!
Then anger welled up inside of her, and she grabbed her granddaughter by the
hand and reprimanded her for taking food away from her sick mother.
30 “I really don’t want it, Mama!” Virgie protested.
“Give it to her.”
31 Ann collapsed in a chair by the bed. She looked as
if someone had just struck her. The tears fell like raindrops onto the little
shawl draped around her shoulders.
32 1940 was a horrible year. Virgie died in early
March, and Roy was dead by the end of the month. “How are we going to raise
three little girls,” Ann thought as she stared out the window at nothing in
particular.
33 “We’ll do the best we can, Mother,” Virgil said as
if he’d just read her mind. He cupped her shoulder with his big, wrinkled hand.
He died the following April.
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