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Joshua Corothers 0:00
Okay, so just to start off the interview, I just would like to ask is tell us a little about yourself where you grew up sort of your, your background, your family, things like that.

Sylvia Trammell 0:10
Okay. I'm Sue Trammell. I retired here in 2006. I grew up in Middlesex. We retired back in right beside our home place where I grew up. We worked in Virginia Beach for 30 years, my husband was an AP History teacher. And he loved that kind of work. I was a teacher in elementary school, but I wasn't that successful because I wasn't a good disciplinarian. So I went back to school to get my major in specialist degree. And I absolutely loved the library Iwas placed in charge of research for middle school students, they had awesome programs that are you had to do I was not a high tech personall you had to was click began a lot of times, and a lot of times the students knew exactly what to do. But it was the most rewarding careers that anybody can have. It was just awesome. And I'll go back to my childhood, I had about three very challenging experiences, as a child, and had such awesome report, report support. And one of the most well, first of all, I was from a large family. In fact, when I went to as a media specialist, that's one of the first things I did was go into programs to see if my family was in the Guinness Book of World Records. We had 27 children in our family. And I was number 12. I made the dozen and the time that I was in elementary school, the movie count came out cheaper by the dozen and I thought that was just awesome. That was all about me. And And anyway, we had an awesome family. My dad was a very devout Christian. My mother was a very devout Christian. They also were very, very what is the word intent on us eating and living healthy lives, we had a huge garden, had vegetables to eat fresh out of the garden. We had fruit trees, apples, pears, great vineyards just lined up in the backyard. So it was so such a wonderful childhood. And our dad wouldn't even allow sodas in our house. We couldn't drink things like that it was a child, we could drink orange juice a meal, we will Milk the Cow. Before even people talked about organic food we had it. And we were health children. I don't remember hardly any childhood diseases. A little bit about severe headaches when I started my teen years, and only two black aspirin for it. So it was like we were on a lot of medication. We were healthy children. One of the things I wanted to mention was two or three of the challenges that faced as a child. As children, like I say, my parents were very devout. And they prayed and we went to a little country church to exactly look like a chapel nowadays with all the huge mega churches. And we went attended there all of our life. And it was a social life, too, as well as our spiritual life. We were sort of risky children. We love playing outside and doing actually dangerous things. One of the big things we did was swimming. We love the streams out in the woods, they call them Brantas creeks, and we jump in and swim and I know God protected us from snakes and whatever. It was so dangerous. But one of the challenges of my childhood was when I was about four or five years old. I followed my older brothers and sisters to a stream of water that was down behind the church. The church was about what we call nowadays say two blocks from our home so we could walk down there and we walked down a trail behind the church to a creek in the woods, and I thought I was a big girl so I follow my older brothers and sisters they were playing the game called follow the leader and I tried to do what they do. Sometimes they miss this one out on vines and branches into the water and I jumped into the water but to my mistake, I jumped in on a broken jar. And I didn't it didn't hurt when it cut my foot. I'm told that the middle part of your foot has five bones but when I got out of the water I saw blood pouring. I saw the bones were severed in two. And it scared me so that I was not hurting. I started screaming when my older sister picked me up, carried me down the path to the house next to the church where the minister lived, and called the parchment. And he quickly put me in his car, a mother had too many children to leave them at home and go with me, but he took me to the doctor. And they sewed up my foot, and back then, and that was in the 1940s, I'm amazed that there was so skilled. I need to look at you Joshua instead of looking at myself. They must have been very skilled, even then we had a family doctor we went to and also he came to our home a lot when that was severe sickness. But anyway, he's cleaned the foot up, sewed it back together, it was almost severed. And I can't imagine what the problem I would have had if I had severed half of my foot off right in the middle part of my foot. And I saw the band's cut in two, it was just hanging on, as they say by a thread and he sewed it. And never have I had to limp or walk within bounds or suffer any consequences from that, cut. So I thank God and he will move forward. I know people journal nowadays, a lot of people join on their prayers and journal their memories. My mom was journaling back in 1940. And on the wall upon the buildings outside she journaled. And she wrote about praying for me and my foot. So that made me feel special too. And I thank God that it came back together with a really long lasting effects in the scars still there for me to be reminded of how grateful I should be. And the second challenge, I think, was in first grade, I was in church one night, and on a Sunday night our family was and one of our neighbors can run came running in the church screaming house on fire our house on fire. And it was our house, where the adults in the church trying to keep all of us children away from seeing what was really happening because you could see it from the distance of church. And they held us back and the fire totally destroyed. The house. Only thing that was left was a bedroom suit. And some coins. My dad had them safe. And the community got together, brought us clothes I asume food and other things that we needed. And my dad remodeled a barn, put two bathrooms in one upstairs on one day. And we 15 children lived in that barn until he built the house that is still standing which we call the home place even though my nephews bought it. It has so many memories. And we retired in the house right beside it. But I look at them and think of the memories so many times. But my dad had a solid meal and he was here because that to be a 15 room two story colonial house for $39,000. So it was awesome. And it still standing. It's beautiful. And then the third challenge I wanted to tell you about was when I was in third grade. We were in that house that had built the children, all of us and we're playing the game of Monopoly. And one of my sisters Tim running down the hall crying so mom was dying. Momma's dying. And we of course ran to see her and she was already gone, she was in her bed. And of course that was very devastating. Had a baby five days old. And it was just we had an older sister who was in college. So they called and got her to fly home without telling her what had happened. And then I had another sister in eighth grade. And those two took care of us tried to take care of us the best they could. But it was still very chaotic in our family that many children. One night a group of the older children were going somewhere. And this young girl in her 20s named thelma who was a friend of her said no, I don't want to go. I feel needed here. And she stayed and organized the house and the children. And later my dad started noticing her and he started dating her he married her and she had nine more children and one of those children close to the baby. Third from the baby I think was Jan, Joshua's mother. So that was a wonderful experience. She was a devout Christian too. She loves to pray love God she told us to live a decent, honest life. Another thing she did was she was so organized in so almost phonetically clean they said her Clorox bleach billed us more than the electric bill. And she would fix their hair every morning and just took care of us. So well gave us responsibilities. I remember I had to come home from school and fold laundry, then I could go out and play but it made me feel responsible. I had to clean my own room. And I was one of the children who didn't get married early till I was about 32. So I helped her in return, take care of her children, help put them to bed reading bedtime stories. And in return, last fall, I lost my husband, which was so traumatic. And Jan, one of the little children that I took care of is now helping to take care of me. And Joshua, I call him my tech man, because my husband called him, his grandson, he was so proud of him because he was so smart and gifted and skilled and computers and things just like he was. So now I call on Joshua, when I get on the computer, and we don't know which way to turn. He's always there to help me so much. And of course, we have a loving family. Sisters call me almost every day. And of course, God I'll call on him every morning and give me strength and make it through the day because I still struggle at times. But overall, I have a very happy, wonderful peaceful life. Josh was so good to Joel, my husband too, he called him his grandson and I could hear him talking to his college friends and his teacher friends to tell him how awesome and brilliant Joshua is, and we're just so proud. Is there anything else?

Joshua Corothers 12:10
Well thank you for coming out. It was very nice.

Sylvia Trammell 12:11
Did I cover

Joshua Corothers 12:12
I think you covered most of the bases. I thought we've done this for some of the other people was there any sort of parting words or advice you would like to have before we close out the interview?

Sylvia Trammell 12:24
I just say put God first. Love your family because family is so important to me. I couldn't have children. So I'm just so thankful for a very supportive family and church next door I'd walk the church is right across the street and a minister that ministers so well, his family too. And I just think you put God first and your family, love your neighbors and even love your enemies.

Joshua Corothers 12:53
That was very good. Closing out.