I don’t come home to Byerly to rest. Especially not this time, when my husband Richard and I were in town for Aunt Ruby Lee and Roger’s wedding and all the accompanying festivities. Still, I had expected to get some time to relax. I certainly didn’t expect Aunt Ruby Lee to call and wake me up three mornings in a row, each time with a different emergency.
The first morning we were in town, Aunt Ruby Lee called to ask me to watch out for her daughter Ilene at the country music Jamboree in Rocky Shoals. Ilene was fighting with her father Roger, and it was likely to be worse if he saw her there. The next morning, she called because Ilene hadn’t shown up the night before and she was sure that she had run away. By the third morning, she was in a panic because Ilene’s boyfriend had been shot, and the police were on her doorstep.
I had to wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t come into town over a week early, because otherwise, we wouldn’t have been there when the trouble started.