In the Sweet By and By: Surviving in the coal fields of the Appalachian Mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky - Paperback

by Joyce Osborn Wilson (Author)

In the Sweet By and By is a story about Emily, a mountain woman from the most poverty stricken area of Bloody Harlan County, KY in the Appalachian Mountains. Harlan is coal country, often called Black Diamonds. The coal industry also brought many hardships to those having to work in the mines. Many died from Black Lung due to not having protection from the coal dust. Emily was from a family of sixteen children and it is a poignant story of three generations of three pioneer women and how they survived the hardships of Harlan during the prohibition days. Emily was my mother and this story is about her, and how she crawled out the back window to elope with her true love. Her father served as Magistrate of Harlan County for twenty-nine years. Her mother was part Indian and had beautiful olive skin with shiny long black hair. Emily was only 2 1/2 lbs when she was born, but she grew into a very strong, 4' 11" and stood up to the toughest. Her life was filled with much love, and also much sorrow. None of her siblings died a natural death, and they were all buried among the trees high in the mountains in Kitts Cemetery in Harlan County. Her favorite brother, Woodrow, was killed by a black man that he had befriended many times. Her first sister, Sudie, was burned to death at the age of three when she caught her outing gown on fire from the fireplace. Her heart was broken when her youngest daughter, Carol, was murdered at the hands of a foster child. Mother's doctor said she just put things in the back of her mind, stopped doing things and went into a form of dementia caused from great stress but which kept her from going insane. In the Sweet By and By was always sung at every funeral and there were many in the Howard family. This tender story is from the heart of my dear sweet mother's own words she had recorded in an old spiral notebook. She birthed three girls, Shirley, Joyce and Carol. Emily's husband was a coal miner and died at the age of 56 from Black Lung and mother remarried. She was married to of these men for twenty-eight years each and they both treated her like a China doll. From this old notebook I tell her tender, loving story. www.booksbyjoyceosbornwilson.com

Author Biography

Joyce Osborn Wilson is a woman with many talents. She is first a Christian and also author, entrepreneur, instructor, leader, caregiver and inventor. Her expertise includes owning a salon and wellness center for twenty-six years, formulating a line of skin care products known as J-Mex, inventing the BriteWhite Teeth Whitening System, developing skin care devices to improve the skin and writing five books. Her first book, "Take a Walk Through Life" is about using Red and Blue LED (light emitting diodes) for the improvement of skin care and therapeutic treatments. Joyce also wrote a book, "Continuing Education," for the novice esthetician as a bible for skin care services. She researched her family tree on her mother's side and wrote a book, "In the Sweet By and By," the true touching story of her mother, grandmother and great grandmother's survival in the most poverty stricken area of the Appalachian Mountains of Harlan County, Kentucky. After taking her mother out of the those mountains to live with her, she documented over ten years of caring for her mother with dementia brought on by stress and wrote "A Twisted Mind," the how to's for those caring for one with dementia and how she developed a way of handling her own mother without confrontations. It is a humorous enlightening story of true events during those ten years. After being a widow for thirty-eight years, she met the love of her life and wrote the story "A True Passionate Love Story," about how you can fall in love after hitting the ripe young age of seventy. Her passion for her husband, family, church and community continues to keep her young. She is an avid golfer and loves to read and travel with her husband, Ken, in their RV throughout the country. She has also served her community being a charter member of Leadership Walker County in Jasper, Alabama, and being honored with Business and Professional Woman of the Year twice in her career and serving on boards too numerous to mention. Joyce founded and serves as President for the Council for Cosmetic Teeth Whitening (CCTW) - www.CCTWonline.org. She worked directly with the FTC and continues this work with the Institute for Justice to retain her entrepreneurial rights. Ms Wilson has appeared on the John Stossel Show and she was honored with a feature story in the front section of the New York Times.