Proverbial Phrases

CHAPTER ONE

Although Roy and Lorene’s wedding vows were ultimately lies, for now they believed each other.  In the small township of Elba, Alabama, Lorene and Roy found love in each other, in 1954.  She, a five-foot-five, eighteen-year old with almond-brown eyes and black, long, very silky hair, agreed to bare her lover children, but for a cost.  Lorene wanted to be a registered nurse.  Roy wanted a large family of children to work the fields.  She, as a southern girl, promised to faithfully do her part in providing him with many children, as long as he would do his part in supporting her efforts at achieving a higher education.  So, the two teenagers set out and got married.  He, a six-foot-tall masterpiece of a dark-and-handsome man, took the hand of his almond-eyed beauty.  Objections were nil.  But, on their wedding day, Lorene’s father, John D. Caldwell, pulled his new son-in-law aside and said to him, “Keep my princess in the apple of your eye, young man.”  He told him, “And, remember, God is in her.  And you don’t talk to God in just any kind of old way.  Treat her good and goodness will smile down on you.  But, if you treat her bad you will learn what hell is all about---- and I will be your teacher.”  Roy nodded to his new father-in-law and assured John D. that his daughter was in the safest hands. 
After the commencement of their nuptials, Lorene and Roy immediately began producing children.  Matter-of-factly, their first child was already on the way.  Between 1955 and 1962 Lorene gave birth to five healthy children.  Her body paid sorely for the stressed placed upon it, though.  On one particular occasion, while she was washing laundry, she began to cough up blood.  This landed her in the hospital with a diagnosis of tuberculosis.  While Lorene was in the hospital, two Adventist missionaries paid her a visit.  They introduced her to their church’s health message and ultimately won a new convert.  Although Roy was not a church-going man, he did not prevent his wife and children from attending church services.  Besides, he felt that his wife’s new church kept her mind busy enough to tame her educational desires and place them further on hold for a while. 
By 1964 the couple had moved to Lake Wales, Florida.  The stresses of Alabama (and marriage in general) had taken their toll on each of them.  In Lake Wales, Lorene gave birth to two more children, Kolby and Kendall.  Kendall was special.  During her pregnancy with Kendall, Lorene commented, “I’ve never felt so healthy and strong during any of my pregnancies as I do with this one.  I know God is at work with this child inside me.”  Giving birth to Kendall went as smoothly as the pregnancy.
Now, with seven children to feed, Roy found himself deeper and deeper indebted to the cause of fatherhood.  He and his wife had committed themselves to providing their children with the best of everything.   But, Roy was failing at his test.  Although times were usually rough, financially, Roy was determined to produce at least three more children before calling it quits.  With ten children working beside him Roy felt he could harvest his crops of cotton and vegetables without hiring a soul.  Lorene kept performing her wifely duties and fulfilling her promises to Roy.  But, after seven children, she felt that Roy was slowly forgetting her educational goals.  Instead, she felt that he wanted her to focus all her energies on raising their growing clan.  In Florida, however, the crop was citrus, and not cotton. 
Marital tensions became thick between Lorene and Roy, and in more ways than a few.  Money was short.  Bills needed to be paid.  Children needed their necessities.  Lorene’s religious views were being questioned on a regular basis.  Roy’s work ethic was also being questioned.  And work for Roy was very lean.  The new job he had accepted at Splashy Juice orange company in Orlando needed to hurry up and pay its fee.  And it did.  Roy now had a well-paying job in Florida, and his wife was near the nursing school that she had longed to attend.  In 1968, however, when Lorene was pregnant with her eight child, she and Roy had one of their worst arguments.  This argument changed their relationship dramatically.