Ben--that was my man--and me couldn't make it by
ourselfs, so we come on back to this little place where we come soon
after the war. He was taken with a tumor on his brains last summer and
died in two weeks. He didn't know nothing all that time. My onliest boy
what stayed here died jest two weeks after his pa. All them others went
to Iowa after the big railroad strike here. They was out of work for
many years; they didn't like no kind of work but railroad, after they
been in the shops.
How I a-living now? You wants to know, honest? Say honey, is you a
relief worker--one of them welfare folkses? Lor' God, how I needs help!
Honey, last summer when my husband and son die they wasn't nothin' to
put on 'em to bury in. I told the Welfare could I get something clean
and whole to bury my dead; honey chile, it's the gospel truth, it was
two weeks after they was buried when they brought me the close
(clothes). Theys told me then I would get $10.00 a month, but in all
this time now, I only had $5.00 one time. I lives with my daughter here
in this house, but her man been outen work so long he couldn't keep up
the payments and theys 'bout to loose it. Lordy, where'll we go? I made
big garden in the spring of the year, and sold a heap.
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