[This text is machine generated and may contain errors.]

Interviewer 1 0:00
An Introduction your family background.

Shirley Peele 0:03
Okay, um I was born near Cooper school, the Oak Ridge school Nash County. Yeah, that's where it was raised there. I was actually born in Wilson County, but I had a sister and five brothers all younger than me. So I came from fairly good sized family. We grew up on a farm. So ww worked, worked hard. I graduated first class of seven [Inaudible] High School. First class, so I'm old. We had our class reunion. It's been a while back now. Gosh, I don't remember what year we did have it, it was the 50th one, 2019. In fact, the head right here, the little restaurant, across the corner from the bus stop, we've lost quite a few class members for different reasons. I got married in September after I graduated, June of 1969. I've been married, if they can't make it to September 53 years, I have two children, one grandson. And they both live up near the mountains. They left. They left this whole world. My daughter was the teacher. She's taught for 22 years, but she's doing something different now. Since COVID. Came out she taught the little the little kids the preschoolers. They had like a bus that went to different schools on different days. And she had Friday's a workday. So it was like Monday and Wednesday was the same stops. And Tuesday and Thursday were the same stops. And when COVID came out, you can't teach little ones how to tie their shoes or whatever on a computer. So she just got discouraged with it. And now she is working in the J. Iverson Riddle center in Wilmington which is mentally incapable adults, so she went from little bitty kids to adults, but she loves what she's doing. She still has her state employee credentials and that's a state job. She's doing do I have my grandson graduated last year from the school in Morganton. And he's going to oh, gosh, what is this going to the community college right now um, but he's, after this year, he'll be going to Western Carolina. So he's doing good and that's my only grandchild. And my son is, he's a county coordinator for Catawba County, which he's in he agreed she's in Morgantown, so they're kind of close together. He loves what he's doing. Not married, no children. He loves children. He loves children. And he used to be a farmer and here in the Bailey area. And that's funny. I have my sister passed away. And my older brother and my younger brother had passed away and my mom and dad both gone. We're in our own little, little home bound group now so But that's about all not very exciting life. But I enjoyed every year of it.

Interviewer 1 4:04
so so our question, we're gonna ask you this question. And then we can like, you know, segue to different, you know, questions, you know, just on how you respond. Okay, so the main question is,

Interviewer 2 4:21
okay, think back about your life and the life challenges that you or your family members have had to face? Who were the family members and friends who may have helped navigate the challenge.

Interviewer 1 4:39
So like, Who were your secret group and who were your support group and like, you know, your church or your family or your friends?

Shirley Peele 4:45
I guess I could start with well, when my dad passed away, he was 45 years old. He had a massive heart attack, and the whole community over there kind of just They always, if we needed anything, it was all the neighbors there were supportive. And they supported my mom after my dad passed away. Mom raised three, three of the boys, three out of four of us were married, and three of them are still at home. So she raised those boys. And then when she got sick, can't remember she died in 2008. She came to live with us in my house. I had a help home health nurse came in, and my brother, my next and my oldest brother was very supportive, because if I was trying to work, of course, he was working too. But it was a little bit easier for him to get off work because he was like a supervisor. So he could do what he wanted to do. Yeah, and they would call me it were, the lady would come and she said, she'd said Mama deer has fell, and I can't get her up by myself. And I knew she couldn't. So I would just, I could leave work. So my, my bosses were really good. They knew the situation or not, so look I gotta go. But I'm coming back. And sometimes I'd have to call my brother and say, Look, can you get it Mary, get mom up. I'm in the middle of something I can't leave. So he would go out and help her get mom up. And of course, she very heavy, she was having heavy legging. But she finally had a stroke. And we had to put her in a nursing home, which I hated to do really bad. And she had several more after she was in there. And she passed away in 2008 2008. And of course we had Arthur's mom and dad, they were right next door to us. They built their house after we did. And when Arthur's dad passed away, his mom moved in with us and she never moved back into her house, which we were right across the woods. Yeah. And so she stayed with this for about eight years. And her sister would come and get her sometimes. And keep her for a while. But she finally, well Arthur finally talked her into it because she wasn't working and where she and her husband both were at home. So she finally came and got her because we were afraid something was gonna happen to her while we were both at work. And that exactly, is what happened. But she was with Arthur's sister at the time. So. But after she passed away, my mom then moved down with us. And she lived with us for about two years. But as far as support, we had church family members that supported neighbors. Relatives. So I guess it would just be like a

Interviewer 1 8:06
close knit.

Interviewer 2 8:07
Yeah. Did you ever like have a therapist? Or like, back in the day? Like, do you think mental health like awareness was different from how it is now? And it was it? Like, did you ever seek help?

Shirley Peele 8:24
We've never had any, like mental help. per se. I guess the only thing right now that we've got going on is my husband had a heart attack last year, and he was at Greenville for a week, came home and he got worse off, had to go back and we were there for nine days. This happened in April, right after Easter was the Wednesday after Easter. And he finally had open heart surgery in August of last year. And he was in there for 15 days then. And during all this time from the time he had the heart attack and even after he had the heart surgery we had what would you call nurses, physical therapy, occupational therapy. And the nurses were coming in our home checking him every week but as far as mental i That might have been part of it too because they were asking him questions. And then this past year in April, he's had a heart pacemaker and defibrillator installed but he's doing good now he had to have surgery after the heart surgery. Yeah, and the pace maker. He's doing really good now so that's getting stronger every day. But as far as mental, I don't recall ever having just a regular mental.

Interviewer 1 10:15
So

Shirley Peele 10:20
Are y'all recording all this?

Interviewer 1 10:21
Yes. But we're like to get through and like, set up and put it all together

Interviewer 2 10:32
and the all the nurses and stuff coming in your house. Every time I move my grandma's it's always someone.

Shirley Peele 10:38
Oh, they're so helpful though.

Interviewer 2 10:40
Yeah, there's nice, he's in the rest home right now. He's at like a rehabilitation thing, because he's trying to learn how to walk again and stuff. Yeah,

Shirley Peele 10:49
I tell us tell you its tough.

Interviewer 2 10:51
I went to know the other day and he was acting so silly. The nurse was asking him like questions, you want to make sure you didn't have like dementia or anything, that he just was not answering her. She like asked him to count backwards from 20. And he was like, No, I can't do that. It's like, what do you mean? Like, wait a few minutes? Because he kept telling her, I'm from the war I can't I don't want to answer your questions. And she would be like, you have to.

Shirley Peele 11:23
They have their job they have to do and

Interviewer 2 11:26
they're trying to help.

Shirley Peele 11:27
And they were asking Arthur a lot of those questions. What day is it? How do you feel? What do you think about this? Yeah, who's the president? And all that good stuff.

Interviewer 2 11:41
Off the top of your head.

Interviewer 1 11:55
So advice would you give to people who are struggling with the same situation? Or what? What piece of advice would you like, recommend to like people, like just in general, like, what's that one piece of advice?

Shirley Peele 12:11
People that are sick, or just in general life advice? In general, okay. If you're, I would say if you're dealing with family members that are sick, or whatever, are some that are just alcoholics or on drugs or whatever. All you can do is is be there for them. Pay attention to what they do. Listen to him, because sometimes I can tell you what their problem he is. And maybe you can get help for him from what they tell him. And just be there for him. That's the main thing, just be supported. And it takes a lot of patience. Takes a lot of patience. But you know and pray. Praying is the most powerful thing in the world. And I know a lot of prayers have been saved for my husband as far as well. And, and prayer does work.

Interviewer 1 13:25
So is there anything else you might say? Just in general?

Shirley Peele 13:31
Stay in touch with your family members? Yeah, that's the main thing. Yeah, people now are so busy they just move away.

Interviewer 1 13:41
I feel like in rural communities. It's just very like,

Shirley Peele 13:43
yeah, yeah, you may have you may raise your children and then they move way off. And if you don't stay in contact with them, you don't know what they're going through and be open and supportive to them too. Because even if you can't be there, sometimes they need to renounce and they need just don't do so. And just be good to your neighbors. You have to be good to your neighbors in order to have a labor. Even if you don't if you don't want even if you don't like your labor, you still have to you know be supportive. And you can be supportive and not not have to mingle with them all the time. And what do we know about that? We did well, thank you for my thoughts. Yeah. Thank you for coming in. Doing this kind of worry about kids going to school these days because so much alive. So much going on and I And they face situations too and all you can do is pray for him. Just pray that people will leave him alone and they'll be safe and when you let him go in the morning they're gonna return I'm just thankfull, I don't have words for it.

Interviewer 2 15:17
So did you go to Nash Central in Nashville?

Shirley Peele 15:31
Its a good school.

Interviewer 2 15:31
I went to Cooper's Elementary

Shirley Peele 15:35
You do you? Where do you live?

Interviewer 2 15:38
Do you know where the airport is on? 97? Yeah, my neighborhood is one like right in front of that one.

Shirley Peele 15:46
Yeah, I know a lot about that area. That's where I grew up. That was something I'm probably over there been telling you. There's been some houses built over in that area.

Interviewer 2 15:59
There's so many.

Shirley Peele 16:01
A lot of houses anyway. A lot of farmland has been sold and houses have been built.

Interviewer 2 16:10
That's what's happening around my grandma's house is. I was raised in [Inaudible].