My Uncle Don was very special to me. When I was a just a little girl I can remember going to his & Aunt Norma's alot. I can remember he liked for me to scratch his head for him. He worked in the timber with my dad...Bob Phillips and my mom would go with them sometimes. Aunt Norma told me that my mom Louise used to go with Don to the store to pick up stuff for their lunch and people thought they were brother and sister. Don & Norma were very close to my parents. My mother died of cancer in "1963" and my dad will killed 2 1/2 years later in a terrible car wreck with my Uncle Jim Sanderson [Aunt Helen's husband] in "1965"] August 28th only 1 day after my 12th birthday. Both of them took their deaths hard as everybody did. Aunt Norma used to stay in bed all day long on my dad's birthday and never did get a driver's license because of her brother losing his life in the wreck. Uncle Jim was driving when he went to pass another car and the sun blinded him hitting an on coming car killing my dad and the young kid that they hit. Uncle Jim always blamed himself for my dad's getting killed and carried that guilt with him until the day he died. He & my dad were good friends and I always felt so sorry for him because I could feel that everytime he looked at one of us kid's it reminded him of that horrible day we lost him when he was all that we had after losing our mother. Uncle Jim was hurt pretty bad in the wreck. I was told they had to cut the car to get him out of the wreckage. When he came too at the hospital the first thing he wanted to know was how my dad was. They had to tell him he was alright or he wouldn't have survived the shock that dad was gone. Jim had to have several operations on his leg over the years and he walked with a limp. I never did blame him for my dad getting killed because I knew it was a terrible accident and that if Jim could have given his life to have saved dad he would have. Uncle Jim was a very sweet guy. He used to try to sell me things everytime he saw me and Aunt Helen's always done that too! Ha!Ha! Jim died of a heart attack in his home when he and Aunt Helen lived next door to Grandma & Grandpa Phillips there on Walnut Street in Carthage. It was hard enough losing our precious mother when Bob & I were just little kid's and when we lost our dad it was like having a bomb dropped on us. My dad was "MY HERO". I loved both of my parents more then anything in the world and it was beyond hard growing up without them and having my own family and my kid's not having any Grandparents to make over them etc. My husband John only has his dad when we got married and he died July 20, "1975" and I never met his mother Hazel because she had passed away before I met John. Bob & I went to live with my mom's sister Bonnie and her husband Terry for about 5 years and then we both went back to Carthage to live with Grandma. I only lived with Grandma & Grandpa for about 5 months or so until I had our son Jay and then we moved back to Burlington where John was born and raised. When I lived with Grandma & Grandpa I saw my Aunt Norma & Uncle Don quite abit coming in and out of Grandma's. Grandma helped them alot with transportation so Norma could get to and from work at the shelter care where Grandma also worked at that time. I can remember Uncle Don coming into Grandma's and I can still hear his sweet, friendly voice say, Hi Marge! How are you? He was always so much fun to be around just as Norma was. I remember Uncle Don wearing his western shirts and cowboy boots. He would talk about my dad getting killed and express to me how bad he & Norma felt that us kid's had lost our dad etc. I remember one day I was being babysat by Iris Morrell and she had a girlfriend over and got to showing off and pulled my hair and I got on my bike and rode all the way into Carthage taking the back roads to Don & Norma's when they lived out by the college. When my dad got there I got my butt paddled but good because he told me it was too dangerous for me to be doing that. I remember being at Don & Norma's when they lived out by the college and it was raining really hard and my dad pulled up in his car and was running into the house and slipped and fell on his back knocking the wind right out of him and I laughed like crazy! Ha!Ha! He wasn't hurt it just took his breath there for a few minutes. It's a wonder I didn't get paddled again for laughing at him! Ha!Ha! Bob & I used to pull Rex, Donnie, & Wilma around in their wagon when they lived out by the college too. After I got married I didn't get to see Don & Norma as often as I would have liked too. I did write to Aunt Norma a couple of times and went to West point with Grandma a couple of times to see them but after Grandma & Grandpa moved to Hamilton I didn't get to see them very much. I always thought the world of Don & Norma and their kid's growing up. It thrilled me to death when Grandma told me that Aunt Norma & Uncle Don were leaving West Point and moving to Carthage! Right away I knew I'd get to be close to them again. Grandma was so excited about the house they were buying and that she was going to have a nice room there etc. She explained in great details what the inside of the house looked like. She was so proud of the Doyle kid's for remodeling the whole house etc. Grandma lived there with Don & Norma until she got to where she couldn't walk very well and had to go into the nursing home there in Hamilton. Aunt Norma had hurt her foot at work by falling over a wheelchair foot rest and had to have surgery and her foot never did completely heal and she just wasn't able to take care of Grandma anymore. The entire Doyle family were wonderful to Grandma. Uncle Don used to say that they wouldn't have survived had it not been for Grandma's helping them out all those years with their having 7 kid's and seeing to it that Norma got to work everyday come rain or shine. Grandma travelled the roads when the weather was really bad out. Cold and snowy etc. So, Uncle Don really thought the world of Grandma. Grandma told me to go to Aunt Norma & Uncle Don's when I needed to eat or to have a place to stay that they would love to have me. So, while I was coming and going from the nursing home to spend time time with Grandma I started spending alot of time with Don & Norma. When Grandma died I think Aunt Norma was afraid that I wouldn't go see them as often since Grandma was gone but I told her that I would always go see them because I loved her just like I did Grandma. I told her that their house was home away from home to me and she said she wanted it to be and that she knew that I loved her. Uncle Don was beginning to deteriorate when I first started going there but for quite awhile I was able to have conversations with him which I'll never forget. I would always make over him just as I did Aunt Norma. I would go up to him and hug him and ask him who my dad was and he'd always tell me right away, BOB PHILLIPS! When I'd ask him who I was he'd say, MARGE! We'd hold hands and he wouldn't want to let go. I always took him good things to eat and did everything that I could for both him & Aunt Norma because they just meant so much to me.