Mama returned to England; family lost touch
Continued from Dec. 18 Ezra Taylor, of Garfield, had served in England in World War II, married a young lady in England, and brought her home to his family in Garfield. There, they were raising their three children. Then, Ezra was killed in a car crash on Sept. 9, 1949.
Ezra’s death at 29 years of age devastated the family.
Ezra’s widow, Joan, wrote to a relative, “We never really got over this great tragedy and I don’t guess we ever will, but we must all try and bear up as best we can.”
Tragedy struck again as Joan’s mother died in England on the same day that Joan buried Ezra. At 25 years of age, Joan had lost both her mother and her husband and was left to raise their children alone — 3-year-old son, Ricky; 2-year-old daughter,
“It was always on my mind to one day find out where my parents and I had lived in Garfield.”
Christine Carter
Christine; and 3-month-old baby, Joanne.
Within a few weeks Joan and the children moved in with Alma and Mary. Joan said, “I just couldn’t take living in the house we were renting as there were so many things to remind me of him.”
Because Ezra had let his Army insurance go after his discharge, money was scarce. Joan was left with little way to support their children.
Alma continued working at the lumber mill, but it was hard because it held so many memories of Ezra.
The one bright spot for Joan was Alma and Mary — they treated her like their own daughter, making her feel like one of them. She would tell her daughter many years later about how supportive they were of her and how much they loved her.
Mary adored all her grandchildren, but especially Ricky as he was the “spittin’” image of his daddy. She said he was the closest thing she had to Ezra.
Still, with her husband and mother gone, Joan missed her brothers and sisters in England. So, a year after Ezra’s death she again packed up her young children and made the long journey back to England.
Back to England
Alma and Mary did not want them to go, and Mary said that it broke her heart when they left.
Life wasn’t so good for Joan, either, in Southampton. It was difficult raising three children as a single parent and she was broken- hearted to be away from Ezra’s family. She regretted her decision to leave Arkansas and wanted to go back. However, money was tight and there was no way to make the trip back to the States.
For many years, letters and packages flew back and forth between Southampton and Garfield and the bond between the families continued. Then, 10 years later, Joan remarried and slowly the connection to Ezra’s family was lost. Because the memories of Ezra’s death were so painful, Joan didn’t share much about that time with her children, except to say how much she loved Alma and Mary and how good they had been to her and the children.
Over the course of the next several years, Joan lost both Ricky and Joanne to death at young ages, and in 1985 she died of kidney disease.
Christine, at the age of 39, was left with no ties to her Arkansas heritage and very little information about her father. She had a few pictures and the flag that draped his coffin, but that was all.
“After losing my father, brother, sister and mother, it made me think more about my father’s family. It was always on my mind to one day find out where my parents and I had lived in Garfield and visit my dad’s resting place.” Christine said. “I always knew Scherry and Colyn were out there somewhere but never knew where. Unfortunately, back then I had no way of knowing how to find them.”
In addition, Christine and her husband, John, were raising their own children, Lee and Marie. Life was busy, so tracing her family had to wait. But as the years went by, she often wondered about the family she had so briefly been a part of in Arkansas. To be continued. Editor’s note: The story of the reunion of Scherry Byler Lee and her cousin, Christine Carter, from England, is being published in three parts, Dec. 18, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.