The Story of Alice
Alice was born just over 56 years ago in a small dot of a town on the West Virginia side of the Great Bend of the Ohio River. Her parents were first cousins who ran off and eloped one night because their daddies had discovered they were having sex in the barn and told them they could never see each other again. They were 16 and crossed over into Ohio where they found a preacher man willing to marry them. Alice came along 7 months later. Her brothers and sister followed along every 11 months after her and she was the only one of them without a birth defect.
Her parents started fighting almost immediately. Her Daddy would come home after stopping off at the bar to drink with the guys from work and then the screaming would start and the fists would fly. She didn’t remember a time when a fight didn’t end with blood on the walls. They moved over to Ohio when she was little because her Daddy said that her Momma’s brothers were too interfering.
One night, after a really loud fight, her Daddy took off with promises of what would happen when he came back home. Her Momma called her Uncles crying and told them that she was scared for the kids and asked them to come get them. Her Uncles drove across the Ohio and came for the kids. Alice never saw her Daddy alive again. She was told he had an accident that night and he went back to West Virginia in a box.
Alice grew up caring for her brothers and sister. Her brothers always had to go to the hospital and her sister had to go to a nursing home when she was 10. Her sister died from complications related to her birth defects at 14. Alice wound up quitting school when she was in the 10th grade so she could go to work at the local diner and help take care of the family. Her Momma drank herself to sleep every night, until one night when Alice when 18 years old, her Momma went to sleep and never woke up.
Alice loves her brothers and does her best to care for them. When she was 21 she met a man that seemed like he would care for them all. He had a job at the local Steel Mill and his family were newer to West Virginia than hers. They got married and she and her brothers moved into his trailer out in the back hills. The Steel Mill shut down and her husband was laid off like most of the people in their town. She thought he was a good man. He wasn’t. Alice had 3 children with him, and every day she takes care of everyone and every night she prays to Sweet Jesus for death.
Alice has an IQ score just over 80. Her brothers’ IQ scores barely approach 70. They have always followed manual labor directions well but between the heart defects and liver and kidney issues, they can’t work long. In fact, one of them passed away recently because his liver finally failed and there was no way anyone was going to chance a liver transplant on him. They are all proudly registered to vote and love the USA and the U.S. Military. They particularly love to go to the Air Shows. They are proud of their Country and they go to Worship every Sunday.
They keep hearing on TV that people like them should try harder and “go back to school” or “learn another trade.” The Steel Mill where most of the men in town used to work sent all its labor overseas. The mines around the State have been shutting down and no one has any money to move anywhere and don’t even know how to find work anywhere else. They all live in the trailer that Alice’s husband owns a hillside across from his parents.