I was born and raised just outside of the small upper Midwestern town of Centerville. Our farm was located about seven miles outside of that little town. We had to take the hard top state road five miles outside of town and then a narrow tar and gravel and sand county road a further two miles to our homestead and farm.

I am the youngest of three children with an older brother, John, who is about five years older than I am. My older sister, Rachel, is about three years older than I am.

We were raised on a small farm of a half section of land, that is, 320 acres of land. My Dad farmed the land raising soft winter wheat, corn and soybeans rotating the crops on the land.

As one would expect, farming that much land was a huge job for my Dad or for any other one individual farmer for that matter. Most farmers had families and when their sons and sometimes even their daughters were old enough and big enough they helped the family on the farm.

Farming that much land was a hard grueling job for any one man and most days it was 16 hours a day, daylight to dark, and the work was never done. My Dad and my brother and I had to work that many hours especially during harvest season.

When each of us three kids got old enough and big enough to help out on the farm, we were expected to help as much as we could when we could. That applied to us boys especially but, even Rachel helped out driving the tractor and driving the grain truck, too, as was necessary to help out.

Rachel was just as much a girl as any other but, she sure knew how to drive the tractor and how to drive the grain truck, too, as she was required to help the family out.

During plowing, planting and harvest season we were expected to come home from school and help out with the preparation of the fields for planting, cultivation and harvesting.

We were even expected to help out in the cultivation of the corn until it got so tall that the tractor with the cultivation equipment attached that it couldn’t get through the field. The cultivation of the corn field was necessary to insure a good yield from the land. Otherwise the weeds would take it over and substantially decrease the yield.

During the spring harvest season we were expected to help with cutting the wheat with the combine. Combining wheat generally started at daylight and lasted until dusk. When we started cutting wheat we wanted to finish before it started raining and we couldn’t get through the field with the combine.

Worse the grain elevators didn’t want to buy wheat with too high a moisture content. They didn’t want to pay for the extra weight of the water it contained. Worse yet wet wheat could turn sour and spoil in the storage bins.

However, wheat harvest season came during our summer off from school so we had a lot of work to do during the early part of our summer home from school. Dad normally operated the combine during wheat harvest and either John or Rachel drove the truck into which Dad off loaded the wheat from the combine grain hopper.

Then Dad or John and once in a while Rachel would drive the truck into town to the grain elevator to sell our wheat.

Of course, when I got old enough and big enough to do those jobs I was expected to do them just as well as John and Rachel did. But, when I could do all of those jobs, Rachel was allowed to remain in the house and help Mom with her house work, cooking, cleaning and other chores.

That would leave the outside farm work to the men. Before any of us kids were born, even Mom used to help out driving the tractor and helped with driving the grain truck, too. Mom was a really pretty truck driver, though.

After John graduated from high school he still helped with the work that summer and some of the following summers, too. But, that fall he started college at the state university about 200 miles away.

That meant the work that he normally did, fell to just Dad and me. Sometimes, Rachel even helped driving the truck during wheat harvest time. The hands at the grain elevator used to really like to see Rachel bring a truck load of grain into the grain elevator.

Rachel was and still is a beautiful girl, now a grown woman, with kids of her own. She was considered to be “Eye Candy” even when she was dressed in jeans, boots and a plaid shirt driving our grain truck.

No doubts she could slide into the driver’s seat of that box bed grain truck and haul a load of grain to the grain elevator today. And she would still look just as pretty as she did then. The hands at the grain elevator would still think she was eye candy now as much as she was back then.

Two years after John started college Rachel also went to college at the state university and all of the farm work fell to Dad and to me. When John graduated from college he got a job managing a 4,000 acre farm operation for a major Agribusiness.

Some of John’s acreage was adjacent to our farm and he had his hands full with his job. John would come over and help Dad and me when he could spare the time.

Then when Rachel graduated from college she found a guy who was a banker in town and they got married. It sure wasn’t long before she had a couple of babies on her hands to tend to as well. After Rachel’s babies began to arrive she really didn’t have the time to help us so it was up to Dad and me alone unless John had the time to help out.

A year before Rachel graduated from college I graduated from high school and I went to the state university. Four years later I got my college degree and Mom and Dad drove up to the university and attended my graduation.

After the graduation ceremony, Mom and Dad took me out to eat. During our meal, Mom and Dad asked me, “What are your plans after graduation, Shannon?”

“Well, I know that your wheat crop is probably going to need to be cut by the time we get home. I thought I would take some time off and come home and help you with the wheat harvest, Dad.

I have a job offer in South Texas with a manufacturing company in a production management capacity. I told them you needed me to help you for at least a couple of weeks or more to cut your wheat. Then after that I would go on down there and start to work for them.”

Mom said, “But, Shannon that job is going to be really far from home, Honey. I imagine it is well over 500 miles away, Baby. I wish you wouldn’t go that far from home, Shannon.”

As anyone can see Mom still thought of me as her child or an adolescent even though I was a grown, college educated man. I guessed that she would always think of me that way since I was the last one of her three kids. I was still her baby even though I was a grown man, over 22 years old.

“It’s over 1,000 miles, Mom. But, it is not that far if I fly or only two or three days travel if I drive. It’s not like it was many years ago when most people didn’t travel more than 25 to 50 miles away from their parents’ home, Mom.”

“Ok, Baby but, I still wish you wouldn’t go that far away from home, Honey. By the way, did you know that Molly Ryan was graduating from college and she is going to be home with her parents after that. I saw her Mother at church last week and she told me about Molly.

She asked me about you, Shannon, and I told her that you would likely be home for a while after graduation especially since it is wheat harvest season. She told me that Molly would like to see you when you are both home.

You need to stop by their house and say hello to them when you get time after you come home, Shannon. I know that Molly and her Mom and Dad would really like to see you and say hello to you.”

“Ok, Mom, I’ll stop by there and say hello to Molly and her Mom and Dad when I get back home.” Molly Ryan and I had grown up together and we were classmates all through elementary and high school.

During our junior and senior years in high school we dated quite a bit and I took Molly to our Junior and Senior Proms. Molly was the sweetest, most loving and most gentle girl that I have ever known besides my Mom and my Sister, Rachel, and probably Molly’s Mom, too.

We both thought that we would end up getting married but, she went to college at an all-girls religious college rather than going to the state university. We only saw each other a couple of times each year like Christmas and Easter at church. Molly and her family were a very devout Catholic family and she and her family totally believed in a girl maintaining her celibacy until her marriage.

I know that we drifted apart because we went to different schools located hundreds of miles away. Of course, I was in a four and a half to five year program and I wanted to finish in the normal four years if I could.

That schedule kept me very busy all the time taking as many classes as I could to graduate in just four years. I even had to go to school some summer sessions to get all of the credits I needed to graduate in that short of a time.

I felt like I still loved Molly but, I really didn’t know if she still loved me. I thought she may have found someone else at her college and had forgotten about me. I suspected that my Mom and Molly’s Mom were trying to play match makers. Isn’t that what most Irish Catholic Mothers like to do for their Sons and Daughters? And our Mothers were certainly no exception to that rule.

After graduation, I took an extra day to move out of my apartment and take care of some other last minute issues as well and then I drove home to visit with Mom and Dad.

When I got home on Tuesday of that week, Mom said to me, “Tonight is Tuesday night devotions, Son, so go get cleaned up and get ready to go to church with me and Dad tonight, Shannon.

I knew that when Mom makes a request like that I had best do it, or else I was in hot water. I never wanted to be on Mom’s or Dad’s hot water list if I knew what was good for me and I still didn’t want to be there even as a grown 22 year old college educated man.

I think Mom knew Molly’s Mom and Dad would be there at church even if Molly wasn’t. Sure enough after devotions we saw Molly’s Mom and Dad as we left church. They greeted me very warmly and told me, “Shannon, Molly will be home in a couple of days and we would like to have you come by to see her and us when she gets home. I know that Molly would love to see you and talk with you, too, Shannon.” Molly’s Mom’s request was pretty much a command just like my Mom’s requests were.

“Thank you, Mrs. Ryan. I’ll come by your house Saturday evening and say hello.” I knew what she was angling at. She knew that Molly and I had been close to getting married and she wanted to foster that relationship again if she possibly could. She and Molly’s Dad really didn’t want her to marry some guy from clear across the country and have her moving clear out of the area.

Of course, since I still loved Molly I would still marry her if she told me she still loved me. Especially, if she still loved me like she did when we were in high school. Saturday evening after Dad and I knocked off work for the day I showered, got dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a clean pressed shirt, regular Saturday night attire for most Upper Midwest farm people. I then drove in to town to see Molly and her parents.

At 7 o’clock I knocked on their door and Molly’s Mother answered the door. With a broad smile on my face, I said in my best fake Irish brogue, “Top of the evening to ya, Mrs. Ryan. Would wee bonnie lassie, Molly, be about this evening, Ma’am?”

Giggling, Mrs. Ryan quickly retorted with a broad grin on her face, “Ok, Shannon Kelly, you can dispense with your mock Irish brogue. We both have an Irish surname but, we are all proud Irish Americans here many years and generations removed from the Emerald Isle.”

Then she invited me to come in and have a seat in the living room to wait for Molly. I took a seat in the living room and said hello to Molly’s Dad. Mrs. Ryan quickly stepped over to the hallway leading to the bedrooms and called down the hall, “Molly, we have a visitor. Shannon Kelly is here to see you, Honey.”

A couple of minutes later Molly came out of the hallway with a broad smile on her pretty face looking just as beautiful or more beautiful than I ever remembered her. Her beautiful blue eyes were fire bright and she wrapped her arms around me holding me tightly and very warmly. I put my arms around her and she just melted into my arms like ice cream in the bright mid-day summer sun.

Molly kissed me very tenderly and then she said, “Welcome home, Shannon. I can’t tell you just how good it is to have you here and to see you again.” Then she whispered in my ear, “You just don’t know how much I have missed seeing you. I still love you, too, Sweetheart.”

A huge chill went down my spine and I whispered back to her, “I have missed you just as much, Honey, and I still love you, too, Molly.” I could feel a slight tremor go through her body when I told her that. Then out loud I said, “Molly, you look just gorgeous, tonight. I’m sure that you have already had your supper but, would you want to go out and get a cup of coffee and have a desert with me, too?”

Molly quickly nodded her acceptance, kissing my cheek. Then she turned and told her Mother, “Mom, Shannon and I are going to go get a cup of coffee. We won’t be gone too long.”

As we were leaving I could see an expression of accomplishment spread across her Mom’s face as she said, “Ok, Dear. You two enjoy yourselves.”

We left her house and went downtown to a small diner we used to go to often when we were in high school. We ordered a cup of coffee and a piece of pie for each of us.

When we got our order I said to her, “Molly I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you again, Honey. It brings back all of the memories of the good times you and I had together when we were in high school.

However, I wasn’t sure how you would receive me this evening when I came to your house to see you tonight. I thought that you were going to tell me that you had found someone else and you were serious about him. I thought that maybe you might even be about to get married.”

“Shannon Kelly, how could I find anyone going to an all-girls Catholic religious school? You know that the nuns always kept a close watch on all of us girls and a tight fisted control of us, too. I thought that you were going to tell me that you were engaged and were going to get married now that you have graduated with your degree.”

“Molly, I was so busy with my studies that I never had the time to look for a girl to marry me. And when I wasn’t at school I was here working with Dad helping him out on the farm.

Despite all of that, I’m still in love with you. I have loved you since we were in parochial school together. I never forgot that you and I were close to getting married before we graduated from high school. Do you still feel the same way about me, Honey?”

“Shannon, when you came to the house tonight I told you that I still loved you and that has never changed. If you asked me right now, I would marry you tonight, Sweetheart.”

“Molly, I have a job waiting for me in South Texas and I have to be there by a week from Monday. I don’t think that we have enough time to get married in the church before I have to leave for South Texas. But, first will you marry me and if you will, we need to work something out with our parish pastor. I want to take you to Texas with me when I leave here, Ok?”

Molly threw her arms around my neck and with tears in her eyes and she kissed me very tenderly. Then she said, “Yes, Shannon, I will. I’ll marry you. And we can work something out with our pastor.

I really want to go to Texas with you when you leave here. We won’t have time for the big church wedding that Mom and Dad have always wanted me to have. They really wanted to see me walk down the aisle in my white wedding gown.

But, I’m pretty sure we can get married in the church before we leave. If not we’ll just get married in Texas. I love you very much, Shannon Kelly and I’m going to marry you somehow. You’re not leaving for Texas without me or wherever you go.

If we’re not married in the church here, you know that your Mom and my Mom will break both our necks. Neither one of them will want to see us leave on a 1,000 mile trip to Texas without us having gotten married before we go.”

“Let’s finish up our coffee and pie and then go back to your house and tell your Mom and Dad what we have just talked about and agreed to do, Molly. Then I’ll take you out to the house to tell my Mom and Dad that we’re going to get married. You can spend the night in our spare bedroom and I’ll ask Mom to bring you home in the morning after breakfast and before church.

Tomorrow, Dad wants me to start combining wheat at daylight and we’ll be doing that until dusk. Do you think that you could stop by the rectory tomorrow and talk to the pastor and tell him that we want to get married by or before next Saturday?”

“Ok, Honey. After church tomorrow morning Mom and I’ll go to the rectory and see the pastor. I’ll tell him what you and I want to do and what the situation is about your job in Texas. He knows that most everybody is busy cutting their wheat right now and you and your Dad are no exception.

I know that he will help us because he has known us and our parents nearly all of our lives. If we can’t get married here we’ll find a church and a priest in Texas that’ll marry us, Shannon.”

We went back to Molly’s house and told her Mom and Dad what we had decided to do and Molly was going to go out to our house on the farm with me to tell my Mom and Dad. Molly threw some things into an overnight case and we left for my parents’ house. When we got out to our homestead, we told Mom and Dad just before they decided to go to bed.

When we told Mom and Dad, Mom got very excited and hugged Molly and then she hugged me. Mom said, “Your Mother and I have been talking about and waiting for this to happen for four years, Molly. And now we are finally going to have the sweetest most loving girl join our family and become our second daughter. This news makes us all very happy, Honey.”

Dad and I had been cutting wheat for several days that previous week and he thought that we had another day or two to finish up. He wanted to continue cutting wheat before the weather changed and it would get too wet to get into the field and cut the rest of it.

Sunday morning I was cutting wheat at daylight and we worked to sundown. Monday we cut wheat from daylight to dusk and there was not even a half a day of cutting wheat left to do.

The next day Dad told me, “Go on into town, Shannon, and make your arrangements with Molly and the pastor for you two to get married, Son.” Then the next day I need you to start cultivating as much corn for me as you can get done before you and Molly high-tail it for Texas. It’s getting pretty high now and another week and we won’t be able to get the tractor and the cultivator through the field.”

Molly and her Mom had already talked to the pastor and told him that when we got all of the wheat cut I would come into the rectory with Molly to see him. The pastor told us that first we needed to go to the courthouse and get our marriage license and then he would marry us on Saturday morning.

Come Saturday morning, Molly and I were married. Molly’s Mom and Dad were there along with my Mom and Dad, my sister, Rachel and her family, and my brother, John and his family. After hugging and saying goodbye to everyone late Saturday morning just before lunch Molly and I were on the road headed south for Texas.

I drove most of the way but, Molly switched off driving with me and after midnight the both of us were very road weary. Even with stops for gas and food we drove over 600 miles on Saturday.

We finally stopped and got a motel room before we continued our trip the next morning. When we got into the motel room Molly grabbed her overnight case and she immediately changed into her baby doll pajamas.

Molly got into bed with me and she fell into my arms where I held her tightly and kissed her very passionately. I told her, “Honey, you’re my precious angel, Molly Ryan Kelly, and I really wanted to make love with you tonight and consummate our marriage. But, I think we are both so tired and fatigued that we are going to have to put that off until later, Sweetheart.”

“You’re right for two reasons, Shannon. One is that we are both so tired and the second is that I have just started my time of the month, Baby.” With that she hugged me very tightly, kissed me tenderly, told me she loved me and said good night. Then she rolled over to go to sleep. We were both asleep within minutes.

At 6 o’clock that next morning the alarm woke us and within an hour we’d had our breakfast and we resumed our trip. We only had about 400 miles left to drive to the South Texas town where my new company was located. Late that next afternoon we found a motel located not far from the company’s offices and the manufacturing plant.

At 8 o’clock on Monday morning I reported for work and began my work in production management with my company which would last for over 30 years. Molly and I rented a house for a year or so and then one evening she showed me an ad in the evening paper.

There was a four bedroom house on 20 acres of land which had a small stock barn capable of housing up to four horses. The stock barn also had a hay loft where hay could be stored for winter forage for the horses. The property had a small stock pond for watering the horses as well.

The property was fenced suitably for corralling the horses as well and it was located about five miles outside of town. Molly had always liked horses and she wanted us to buy the property so that we could buy a couple of saddle horses. Molly was super excited when we talked it over and we decided to buy the property.

Our “new” property was not that far from my work and it was not that far from the parochial school where she was teaching elementary school. She had seen a notice in the parish Sunday bulletin saying the school was looking for a lay teacher generally for teaching first and second grade children.

We also bought a couple of saddle horses a few months later. She was so happy to have her two horses and she and I went out for a horseback ride after supper many nights after I got home from work and we’d had our supper.

The parochial school of our parish had been looking for an elementary school teacher. Molly had a degree in teaching and she got that job teaching first and second grade students since she was a parishioner.

She even filled in for some of the other teachers when she was needed. She was as happy as I had ever seen her with our new home and her teaching job. Needless to say she loved children and she loved teaching them, too, regardless of the grade level she was teaching. And the children loved Molly just as much probably because of her sweet personality and her pleasing disposition.

About two years after we were married, our first baby boy was born and Molly was even happier. She was a really good Mother and then two years later our second baby boy was born. It seemed that Molly wanted to have our babies on a two year schedule. Of course, she loved our two little boys dearly but, she really felt like she wanted us to have a baby girl to complete our family life.

Two years later Molly gave birth to our baby girl. She couldn’t have been happier with the birth of our beautiful little girl. I couldn’t have been happier to have my best friend, my loving wife and devoted Mother taking care of our three little ones. She was my angel, she had our three little angels and I loved her even more.

Very often when we went to bed, I took Molly into my arms, kissed her and I’d tell her, “I love you very much, Molly Ryan Kelly.” Then I’d tell her, “The best thing I ever did was to ask you to marry me, Sweetheart. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are the heart of this family and you have three little ones that worship the ground you walk on, too.”

“You even have a couple of horses out there in the barn who think you are their Mother, too. You tend to them and feed and water them and take care of them as though they are your own children. That’s not hard to see, the way they follow you around the pasture. They follow you around like a couple of great big ole overgrown puppy dogs.”

She would hug me very tightly and tell me, “Well, Baby, the best thing I ever did was to tell you, “Yes I’ll marry you, Shannon Kelly. And I’d do it all over again especially if I could have those three little ones we now have sleeping in there in the other bedroom. That especially applies to the youngest one of the three. She’s our little angel Princess.”

In addition to everything else she did, Molly had flowers, plants and shrubs surrounding our home. Her pride and joy were the beautiful roses she so lovingly planted and cared for. Molly worked hard at keeping them looking good, too.

Those plants and flowers and especially the roses added to the value of our home also. She even had our three little ones out there helping her care for her plants and flowers and they all three not only learned how to take care of them but, they gained the desire to care for them too.

I did have to warn her though, “Honey, you always need to watch your hands when you are working in your flower beds and shrubs. This area of the country is notorious for being the habitat of Copper Head snakes that are venomous. There have been people who have been bitten on the hands and forearms by Copper Heads. And I don’t want that to ever happen to you or the kids either.”

Luckily, she was never bitten nor were any of our kids, maybe because I had warned her and them of the danger and she and they heeded my warning. The last thing I ever wanted was to have Molly bitten by a Copper Head. With proper medical attention it was not likely that she could die from a Copper Head bite.

But, a Copper Head bite can be rather painful and why let her go through that when a little precaution could prevent it? It could be a whole lot worse for little kids, though. They required immediate medical attention to keep them alive.

Neither, Molly nor I ever wanted to see any of our three kids go through the pain of a snake bite or worse die from a snake bite. Molly and I sure didn’t bring our three kids into this world to see their lives put in jeopardy by a Copper Head snake bite.

At work, my job responsibility progressed from Production Supervisor to General Supervisor and then to Production Manager. Ultimately, I was promoted to Director of Production Management.

With each promotion and increase in responsibility came a good increase in salary, too. I was able to put ever increasing amounts of my pay into my 401K account with generous matching funds from the company. My 401K account grew very fast and I knew that when I retired we would certainly not be strapped for funds.

Just before our 25^th wedding anniversary, Molly and I were going over our finances and I showed her the account balance of my 401K plan. I told her, “When I croak, Honey, you are going to be a very rich woman, because you are the sole beneficiary of this account.

As the beneficiary of this 401K account, when I croak everything comes to you.” Of course, if Molly didn’t survive, the 401K account would be split equally between our three kids.

“I don’t want to be a rich widow; I just want to have you here with me to be your wife and mother to our kids, Shannon. So don’t you go croaking anytime soon, Sweetheart.”

On our 25^th silver wedding anniversary our three kids threw an anniversary party for Molly and me. I told Molly, “Sweetheart, you have made this the best 25 years of my life. And I’d do it all over again with you, too.”

She quickly replied, “Well I’d do it all over again, too, as long as I can do it with you, Shannon, and have those three kids of ours, this home and our horses, Sweetheart.”

Five years later, on our 30^th anniversary I took Molly on a Caribbean cruise. Molly and I had a really good time on that cruise and she told me that it was something that she would remember the rest of her life. By that time, all three of our kids had graduated from college and all three of them had married and presented Molly and me with Grandbabies.

Molly and I were very happy with our life and our Grandkids. She really enjoyed her time around the house and tending to her flowers and riding her horses. Our happy time went on for another two years with me and Molly enjoying her job, her horses, her roses, her flower beds and most of all our Grandchildren.

One beautiful spring morning, as was my usual habit I put my arms around Molly, kissed her and told her I loved her and I left to go to work. That day Molly invited a neighbor and a good friend, Juanita, to come over to the house and ride horseback with her that afternoon.