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Note: Viola's birth certificate list her middle name as Veatrice. The attendant at her birth was, Mrs. Prisla Merritt. The certificate # is C6690 filed August 12, 1943. Viola died at 5:55 AM 10-08-1999 at Woodlands Convalescent Center in Newburgh, In. She had been in sharp decline of health for three years. She came to Indiana January 31, 1997. She had accumulative stroke damage, Parkinson disease, and congestive heart failure. She had a pace maker installed after her arrival here in Indiana. Ernest Green was present at her death, she passed very peaceful. She was in a coma for two weeks and one day before her death. Her Grave is in Floral Garden Park Cemetery High Point, NC. Section N, Lot 309, Grave #1. I remember her as being a hard task master. If she was nothing else, she was honest. I remember her hemming a pair of pants on a professional hemmer for $1.00. this was in the 80's. She made a dress for $5.00. She always said, when I tried to get her to raise her prices, she would not have anyone saying "old lady Green was robbing them". She was afraid of the world in most aspects, yet she would fight the devil himself. As a child we never locked our doors. One night I heard a commotion and woke up and went downstairs. Mom was going after someone with a metal fire poker. My two older brothers had this man by the arms trying to get him outside. They told him he had better get out or mom would kill him. Some drunk had got the wrong house and tried to get in. One of my older brothers, Darcy, come in drink one day and smarted off to mom, while she was cooking supper. She hit him in the head with a cast iron skillet 3 times before dad could get him outside. Darcy was a fighter and considered very mean. That is one of the few times that dad was around the house. I guess Darcy owes his life to dad, because mom would have taken him out. Mom and dad both always told us that if we got in trouble, we had better hope the police get to us first. If mom and dad got there first there would have been nothing for the police to come for. Mom and Dad split up when I was in 2nd grade. This weighed heavy on her mind. She was afraid some one would think she was a wayward or wanton women. She was worried that dad would have us kids taken away from her. After mom and dad split up mom kept borders in the house. She also ran a looper. This machine sewed the toe closed on socks. It had a round dial full of needles that stuck out from the base. The size and number of the needles was determined by the weave of the sock. Mom ran a 22 point looper. This was the finest of needles. She was at this machine 18 hours a day 6 days a week. There was a man that dropped off socks and picked them up. On Friday's I would walk to the hosiery mill to pick up her pay check. I had a certain route that I could take, and I could not vary this route. There was shorter route but that went through "the bad part of town". I did this from about the time I was 9 years old until I left home. Mom quit looping shortly after that. I think that technology changed and the looper went out. This was very tedious work. I know when I was in high school I never went anywhere or did anything that I did not feel guilty about her stuck at that machine all those hours. When dad died she seemed to go into her own world and slowly retreated from the world. She thought she was keeping up with the world, but over the years I saw that she was in a shell. When she came to Indiana to live, I had a DR. give her a good physical. I mentioned to him about how she was in her own world since dad died. He give me a short answer that shocked me, but I think it was true. He said" the love of her life died". I think mom looked at their split as her failure. In the early 50's a divorce was not looked on favorably. They never officially divorced, just separated. I think she could handle this better than a divorce. Mom did have some fun in her later years. She even took a couple of plane trips. We found out that when she was young she did some drinking. Mom was death on drinking for us kids. I guess it was do as I say not as I did. I am the only one of the five that did not drink. Mom did not travel well. She said that being in a car made her nervous, and it took a couple of days for her body to stop moving, after the trip was over. Mom seemed to be satisfied with her life. I will forever wish I could have made it easier for her. At times I think I barely made it through life, so maybe I did the best I could.
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