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- When Evelyn , as she was called, was 12 years old her mother gave birth to twin girls. Because her mother was sick for sometime after delivering the twins, both Martha and Evelyn helped in the responsibility of caring for the babies. Each girl had a cradle by her bedside. Evelyn had a scar on her knee from a bicycle accident. She was riding the bike along with several other girls when the bike went out of control. It was at that time when it topped a hill and down the otherside. She sat and watched as the Doctor sewed the knee without using anything to numb it. Evelyn was a somewhat popular young lady and very beautiful. She was engaged to be married when WW II started. Her fiance went to war and Evelyn went to work in Montgomery, Alabama. She met a young man by the name of Richard Irving Cottle, Dick. After a short time he was transferred to an Air Base in Texas. Evelyn wrote her fiance a 'dear john' letter and ran off against her parents will to Texas where she and Dick were married on 14 June, 1944. After the war she found herself married to a Baptist minister who planned to live in Maine where he was born and raised. He preferred the cold weather of Maine over the heat of Alabama. Evelyn preferred the heat of Alabama! Some years later there was trouble in the marriage and after many times working things out alone, Evelyn decided to return home with her three young children. Dick came and went, never staying for long. After several years, he just stopped coming. On 21 July, 1964, Evelyn married a deacon in the Baptist Church named Alfred Martin Hair. After all the children were married, they built a home near the Garner homestead in Grady. Just weeks before they moved in Evelyn's mother died. Evelyn was always the caretaker of the family. It was her place to make sure everything happened as it should. When her mother died her sister, Sarah, experienced some emotional problems from it. Evelyn did the best she could and blamed herself when her sister died 4 years later from severe burns. On Thanksgiving day in November 1991, Evelyn was at her daughters' home in Mongomery when she noticed that her legs would not move. She was taken into surgery and treatment to fight cancer began. She fought with extreme courage for almost three years. On the 8th of September, 1994 in her home that she loved so much, Lydia Evelyn Garner Cottle Hair died of Multiple Myelomas cancer. All three girls were with her at her homecoming. In her year book during her senior year there was this statement made about her, 'If you judge her by her size you'll get a big surprise.'Evelyn loved God with her whole heart and lived her live an example before her children all the days of her life. Because of her faith in almighty God, all of her children serve the Lord Jesus Christ. This account was received from Helen Lee (Cottle) Carter, one of the daughters of Lydia. Helen lives at Rte 2 Box 25, Grady, Alabama 36036 on the 21st 0f July, 1998.
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1921 - 1994 (72 years)
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