Cousin Kat was born the eldest of seven in 1916 in the mountains of Western, Virginia. Her father died of a cerebral aneurysm when she was only twelve. Her father and my grandmother were siblings. Sadly, Cousin Kat and her brother, only one year younger, had to leave school. They went to work immediately upon their father’s death. Neither of them ever got to live at home again after that. They took whatever jobs they could get. She did housework and canning. She helped with the sick or the elderly. She assisted with children and helped with gardening. She took on whatever tasks she could find. Her brother did whatever work he managed to find, usually on a farm.

Her widowed mother was left with five small children, the youngest on three. A kind-hearted neighbor allowed her and the children to harvest his bean field. Other neighbors helped harvest their fields, saving them from starvation. Another neighbor gave them a pig to fatten. These kindnesses saved them from starvation. Her father-in-law allowed them to move in a laborer’s house on his farm so they wouldn’t have to pay rent.

As the other children were old enough, they went to work for a dollar or two a week and their board, just as the older children had. Their happiest times were when they got to come home and be together on weekends.

Things got better for the family during Roosevelt’s New Deal. The oldest boy went into the CCC and was able to more money home. Kat got work with NYC and was able to get a earn some cash and get a little schooling. Eventually, there were benefits for women and orphans, easing the pressure. One after the other, the children joined the military or moved away to get better jobs. Cousin Kat married at eighteen. She and her husband moved to Maryland for five years to work and save every penny. They came back home and bought a small farm next to her mother. Her husband farmed and Kat took a job in a garment factory.

Cousin Kat was frugal her whole life, never spenting a penny she if she could avoid it, influenced by her hard early years.