THE ROUGH BEGINNING- Esmie and Mercel

ROUGH BEGINNINGS

Mercel Austin

&

Esmie Austin

♣♣♣

  

Today July 4th 2014, the author of this blog and the sixth child and other younger siblings learned something new about Esmie and Mercel early years of marriage.

If we as children do not know where our parents are coming from then we cannot appreciate where we are in life today, and how far we have come. ( Thank God!)

All of us as children have some form of education or training and the good Lord blessed us in abundance and we thank him for that.

It is very sad and heartbroken what we learned, and it made us feel more appreciative of our parents.

When we were growing up and going to school, the children used to tell us that our parents were rich, but it never started out this way. Some of us middle and younger children weren't made to understand that things started out very rough.

Here is what some of us younger ones learned:

·       They lived in Bigwoods when they first got married.

·       Mercel used to do daily job work with other farmers for just a few shillings a day.

·       He dried coffee to buy things from the store to feed his children.

·       He sold breadfruit on donkey for money.

·       No shop would give him credit as he was so poor that he could not afford to pay them.

·       Esmie could not go to church as she did not have anything to wear.

And

God blessed them in abundance- Mercel was such an ambitious man that he worked hard and turned his life around.

He built the biggest house in Craighead during the 50's

He bought the first innerspring mattress.

He had the first TV.

The first sectional Chair.

In the earlier years he was a butcher

He had a shop

A car

And a truck.

He gave up the truck, the car, the shop and butchering and stuck to farming as it was something he discovered he was good at.

How can we as children not feel proud of him?

How can we not feel proud to be the children of Esmie and Mercel Austin?

'THE RACE IS NOT FOR THE SWIFT, BUT THE BATTLE FOR THE STRONG.

“We are proud to be the children of such a wonderful father, Mercel Austin."

 This cabin is a slight resemblance of the first home they lived in after marriage.

."