By JANET HART LEONARD
From the Hart
Oh, the sweetness of chapter 5. I wish I could stay here a bit longer and savor the moments.
There is just something about a love story that wraps around our heart, making us want to snuggle up in a blanket with a hot cup of tea or coffee and just keep reading, or in my case … writing.
This week, I was there in Chapter 5 as my fingertips quickly scampered over the keyboard of my laptop. I wanted more words and time to tell the story of my parents and their happily ever after.
Born in 1926 in Gap Creek, Kentucky, James Ellis Hart was adopted into the Hart family after his mother died in childbirth. Joe Hart outlived two wives and left another one a young widow with four daughters and Jim.
Circumstances led Jim to only finish the eighth grade. This was common back then as help was needed on the tobacco farm. Jim was the only son, so the choice was made for him.
Meanwhile, across the mountain …
Audrey Wayne Catron was born the same year but in Sunnybrook, Kentucky. She was the middle child … in a family of 11. Ten girls, one boy. She, more than likely, was lost in the crowd as child number six. She was needed more at home, so she never made it the two miles down the rocky road, across part of the mountain and over a creek to the school, once she finished eighth grade.
It’s in Chapter 5 where I tell how Jim and his friends would venture over the mountain to meet up with the Catron sisters. I refer to it as “sight-seeing.” Jim would later say that it was love at first “sight” when he saw Audrey.
Jim would come a courtin’ every Sunday afternoon. He would write Audrey a letter every week between those Sundays. In one of them, which I treasure, he tells her that he would like her to live where he lived, all the time. Talk about a romantic guy.
He finally asked Audrey’s dad, Keen Catron, if he could marry her. After getting the blessing from Keen they headed to the courthouse for a license so they could go see Audrey’s Uncle Joe, a justice of the peace, to get married.
There was a problem at the clerk’s office. Jim was not yet 18 so he needed his dad’s permission to get married. Jim and Audrey knew it would be a long trip back to Gap Creek so they went outside the courthouse and sat for a while. Audrey signed the form and back inside they went, getting the marriage license.
Sometimes you just have to take matters, and the pen, into your own hands.
Later that day, March 6, 1943, they were married.
They were 16 years old.
So now you have an inkling of what Chapter 5 has to say. It is the sweetest chapter I’ve written. I have many more chapters for you to read someday. I had better get writing.
I’m now on Chapter 11. I don’t like writing it. I don’t like the emotions it has stirred up. I don’t like the setting. It’s lonely here in this chapter. I’ve revisited a few characters and again, shed some – what I thought were forgotten – tears. I want to hurry up and get this one written. It’s a bit bitter to write. I want to pull the blanket over my head and wait for the pain to go away. And yet, I keep writing.
Stay tuned. There’s another sweet chapter being written.